A district court judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit against Iowa’s Secretary of State over an effort to eliminate non-citizen voters from the election rolls. Secretary of State Matt Schultz instituted emergency rules he said were needed to cross check the names of some 3,600 voters he identified through D.O.T. records as not being citizens of the U.S.
Schultz said he wanted to check those names against a federal database to help determine if they are indeed U.S. citizens. The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa seeks to block his effort, saying it would keep some legitimate voters from casting their ballot.
The judge refused Schutlz’s request to throw out the lawsuit, saying in her opinion that there are “allegations that implicate surprise, secrecy, fraud and deceit” in Schultz’s actions. Schultz said Tuesday he has still not gotten access to the federal list to cross check the voters flagged in his earlier review.