A federal judge ruled Sunday that Iowa can continue challenging the validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens even though critics said the effort threatens the voting rights of people who鈥檝e recently become U.S. citizens.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher, an appointee of President Joe Biden, sided with the state in filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in the Iowa capital of Des Moines on behalf of the League of Latin American Citizens of Iowa and four recently naturalized citizens. The four were on the state鈥檚 list of questionable registrations to be challenged by local elections officials.
The state鈥檚 attorney general and secretary of state argued that investigating and potentially removing 2,000 names would prevent illegal voting by noncitizens. GOP officials across the U.S. have made possible voting by noncitizen immigrants even though . Their focus has come with former President Donald Trump that his opponents already are committing fraud to prevent his return to the White House.
In his ruling Sunday, Locher pointed to a to resume a similar purge of its voter registration rolls even though it was impacting some U.S. citizens. He also cited the Supreme Court's recent refusal to review a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on state electoral laws surrounding provisional ballots. Those Supreme Court decisions advise lower courts to 鈥渁ct with great caution before awarding last-minute injunctive relief,鈥� he wrote.
Locher also said the state's effort does not remove anyone from the voter rolls, but rather requires some voters to use provisional ballots.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Goldberg, from Minneapolis.
John Hanna And Michael Goldberg, The Associated Press
