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| DES MOINES—Attorney General Brenna Bird announced a win in a lawsuit defending the Iowa Secretary of State’s verification of citizenship on Iowa’s voter rolls in the lead up to the 2024 election. Under President Biden, the Department of Homeland Security told Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate that Iowa had hundreds of noncitizens on our voter rolls, but they would not tell his office who they were, nor grant access to the database that would give Iowa the information. To safeguard the integrity of the election, Secretary of State Pate challenged the eligibility of voters that had told the State they were not citizens when they applied for a driver’s license. Attorney General Bird and Secretary of State Pate also sued President Biden’s administration to ensure access to up-to-date voter eligibility data essential for election integrity. They won that lawsuit in December 2025. Today, the lawsuit brought by five individuals and LULAC challenging Iowa’s 2024 election integrity efforts was dropped. The Secretary of State has been able to check its voter rolls against the database and no longer has need of the 2024 list, which has been rescinded. “Only American citizens can vote in Iowa elections,” said Attorney General Bird. “This victory underscores the importance of our agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that will help Iowa safeguard the integrity of our elections for years to come by making sure an illegal vote does not cancel out the legal vote of Iowa citizens.” The State of Iowa remains committed to election integrity and can use the federal databases to ensure our voter rolls remain clean to ensure election integrity. “It’s the duty of my office to ensure that only eligible Iowa voters vote, and to empower all eligible voters to vote,” said Secretary of State Paul Pate. “Election integrity and voter participation are not mutually exclusive – they support and strengthen each other. Our goal has always been to verify citizenship proactively – at the point of registration rather than at the time of voting, and with access to SAVE and new legislative solutions, we have the tools to do so.” |