Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is submitting a package of election-related bills to the legislature.

“We did a great job in 2024. It was a very smooth election and very successful,” Pate says, “but there’s a very things we want to get straightened and codified in the laws so that we’re ready for the next big election.”

Pate is asking is asking lawmakers for new authority to cancel voter registrations if his office cannot confirm someone is a citizen.

“This is the first of the session so we want to ask the legislative leadership to join us in making the election initiatives a major priority and we’re starting with the citizenship question and how we can back up and beef up our voter list maintenance process.”

Last October, Pate’s staff released a list of potential non-citzens who got an Iowa driver’s license when they were legal residents and Pate asked county auditors to challenge General Election ballots cast by people on the list, in case they had not obtained citizenship. Pate says giving his office broader authority to check the records of state and federal agencies and work with private vendors would speed up the process of checking citizenship status.

“So that the voter isn’t the one that gets hassled on Election Day, but we do it at the point where we’re doing registration to ensure only eligible voters who are the right age and are citizens are the ones who are voting,” Pate says.

Last November, there were recounts in close legislative races and a recount in a congressional race. Pate is seeking legislation to ensure recount procedures are the same in every county and to change how the members of recount boards are selected. Pate says taking action now — before the next General Election in 2026, makes sense.

“The fine tuning and these major initiatives because it gives us time to get them implemented,” Pate says.

Pate’s also proposing a ban on ranked-choice voting in Iowa elections.

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