(SIOUX CITY, IA) The election is just 63 days away, with early and absentee voting even sooner.
But what would you do if you were told your voter registration was being challenged because you share your name with a foreign national? The Iowa ACLU says that's what the Iowa Secretary of State is trying to approve.
Civil rights organizations like the Iowa ACLU have filed an injunction over two "emergency voter fraud" rules the Iowa Secretary of State approved.
They say he doesn't have the legal standing to make these rules. But the Secretary says he's simply trying to "work for integrity and honesty in elections."
Here's the breakdown: Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz approved two emergency voter fraud rules on July 20th.
The first rule could allow Schultz to check a person's voter registration and possibly prevent them from voting.
Iowa ACLU Executive Director Ben Stone says Schultz has not specified which lists he plans on using.
"It's a very vague rule that doesn't have any kind of standards for accuracy," Stone says.
Stone says this rule could ultimately jeopardize their vote on November 6th.
Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill says he had a meeting with Schultz last week, and expressed his concerns being so close to the November election. He says Schultz told him the specifics of the databases.
"The lists that he got with folks that have obtained an Iowa driver's license but are not citizens, they're here legally," says Gill, "They got a drivers license but they are not citizens, and what they did was match that list up with the Iowa, I-voters is what the database is called, and they came up with a number of, I think 3582 possible people who were registers who were not citizens."
Gill says 150 potential names are right here in Woodbury County.
The second rule would allow someone to anonymously file a voter fraud complaint without a sworn statement. Stone says that's against Iowa law.
"If you make an allegation of improper voting, and the county auditor takes away your right to vote, that's a pretty serious matter," Stone says. "And the Iowa legislature has said, we want allegations to be made on the record, so you have to put your name, and be willing to be accountable."
Schultz released a statement; in it he says, "To be as fair as possible in this process, we are giving every individual a hearing prior to being removed from the voter rolls. No county auditor, I repeat, no auditor has been directed to remove any person's name from the voter registration rolls for being a non-citizen."
Gill says even if they tried to purge names at this point, it's too late.
"Once you get into that 90 day period, we can't even hold any of those challenges till after the election. The law prevents us from doing that."
If the person's voter registration is thought to be ineligible, they would be given 14 days to dispute the claim. The ACLU says that isn't enough time for someone to get sufficient documents and is asking Schultz to stop playing political games with the voting rights of eligible voters in Iowa.
You can reach reporter, Heather Leigh, at Hleigh@kmeg.com or on facebook: www.facebook.com/Heatherleighkmeg.
