Federal judge rules Iowa can continue challenging validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens

A federal judge said on Sunday (Nov 3) that the US state of Iowa can continue challenging hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens despite criticism against it as it could threaten the voting rights of recently neutralised citizens of the country.

US district judge Stephen Locher ruled in favour of the state when the lawsuit was brought into the court by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Iowa Latino group. The lawsuit also talked about around four recent US citizens who had been placed on a list of questionable registrations by local elections officials.

Iowa’s Republican attorney general and secretary of state said in his argument that removing around 2,000 names from the list would prevent illegal voting by noncitizens.

Despite the rarity, voting by noncitizens is a key campaign issue for the Republican nominee Donald Trump.Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, celebrated the ruling as he shared a statement on Sunday.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for election integrity,” Reynolds said.

He further added, “In Iowa, while we encourage all citizens to vote, we will enforce the law and ensure those votes aren’t cancelled out by the illegal vote of a non-citizen.”

The legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, Rita Bettis Austen, said some voters could be disenfranchised due to the ruling and Secretary of State Paul Pate’s directive.

“We are disappointed with the court’s decision not to outright block Secretary Pate’s directive, which we still fear threatens to disenfranchise eligible voters simply because they are people who became citizens in the past several years,” Austen said in a written statement.

“Even the Secretary agrees that the vast majority of voters on his list are United States citizens.”

(With inputs from agencies)