Indiana officials ask federal government to verify citizenship of 585K registered voters

Two of Indiana’s top elected leaders on Thursday announced they’ve requested federal aid in scrutinizing the citizenship status of more than 585,000 registered Hoosier voters—more than one in 10 residents on the voter rolls.

The effort echoes similar attempts in other states to purge voter rolls—several of which have run afoul of a federal deadline intended to protect eligible voters.

The Oct. 11 letter was sent after Indiana’s Oct. 7 voter registration deadline, and when Election Day was about three weeks away. Accordingly, the letter noted, “We are thus at a critical juncture in this election cycle when verifying the integrity of Indiana’s voter rolls is of acute importance.”

The letter, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou, asks the agency to use its “Person Centric Query Service” to verify a list of names and dates of birth.

The list of 585,774 includes those who registered without an Indiana driver’s license number or a social security number—or who live overseas.

Indiana has 4,836,973 residents registered to vote, so the letter invites scrutiny of about 12% on the rolls.

“Hoosiers deserve to know that only eligible voters are participating in our elections and that legitimate ballots are not being diluted by noncitizens,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said in a Thursday news release. “We are doing our part to provide this assurance.”

“A fair and secure election process begins with accurate voter information,” Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales said. “As Indiana’s Chief Election Officer, I am committed to ensuring that every registered voter in Indiana has met the legal requirements, including being a U.S. citizen.”

Morales, also a Republican, dubbed the letter “proactive steps to gather missing information for those who completed their registration without a state-issued ID.”

“This is crucial to maintaining the integrity of our elections and increasing public confidence,” added Morales, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from El Salvador. “Only U.S. Citizens can vote in Indiana. Period.”

The move comes after a federal deadline to protect the voter rolls, though.

Several U.S. states, largely GOP-led, have cracked down on alleged non-citizen voting. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sent Jaddou a similar letter, also on Oct. 7.

Rokita and Morales wrote that USCIS is required, under federal law, to reply to state inquiries “to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within the jurisdiction of the agency for any purpose authorized by law.”

The pair also warned Jaddou that USCIS is barred from restricting the flow of any citizenship or immigration status information to other government entities or officials.

“That means USCIS cannot restrict its own officers and employees from responding to our request for citizenship verification.”

Following questions from the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Morales said the office was “responding to concerns from county clerks regarding the increase of absentee ballots from overseas voters…”

“The inquiry with USCIS is not a voter list maintenance activity and will not result in an effort to remove registrations from the voter registration list. The registration status of the 585,774 registrations will not be impacted,” the statement continued.

Morales said that if USCIS identified a non-citizen registered to vote, that information would be passed along to local election officials — who can decide whether to pursue additional action, including challenging voters at the polls.

Opponents react

Voter rights advocates denounced the letter.

“This nonsense from the Attorney General and Secretary of State is just intimidation of naturalized citizens and Indiana voters,” said Julia Vaughn, leader of nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause Indiana. “These two elected officials should be inspiring confidence in our elections, not sending political press releases from their official offices.”

“Indiana elections are safe and secure, and the Attorney General and Secretary of State should be above this type of political division just weeks before the election,” Vaughn continued.

The Indiana Democratic Party said the move could decrease election confidence.

“All this letter serves to do is disenfranchise thousands of eligible Hoosiers, including those with federal IDs attached to an Indiana address, such as active-duty service members, veterans, and Hoosiers living overseas,” Chairman Mike Schmuhl said. “We should not be spending taxpayer dollars to go after eligible Hoosier voters who may not have a state-issued ID because they live overseas, serve in the military, don’t have a car, or are disabled.”

“This is another Republican stunt to question the legitimacy of the election if they don’t like the results,” Schmuhl added, before plugging his party’s ticket.

Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell, a Democrat, said her office and others across Indiana are upholding state and federal laws that ban non-citizen voting.

“If an individual who is not eligible to vote does attempt to nefariously cast a ballot, my office will work to ensure that individual is held accountable under the law,” Sweeney Bell wrote in a statement to the Capital Chronicle.

“… Our state does not need Secretary Morales and Attorney General Rokita to undermine the integrity of our elections nor call into question those who administer them,” she concluded.

Indiana also has a law on the books that requires voters to show ID before voting.

Federal deadline could complicate letter’s aim

It’s unclear what action Hoosier officials could take so close to the election.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to finish voter roll maintenance at least 90 days ahead of federal elections. That would’ve set an Aug. 7 deadline.

But that’s the day Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order requiring “Daily Updates to the Voter List.” The state’s election agency was tasked with comparing the list of people identified as non-citizens by the motor vehicle agency to the list of registered voters, then giving matches 14 days to prove their citizenship before being removed from the rolls.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday announced it’s suing Virginia for violating the law, noting that systematic removal programs may be “error-ridden” — and could remove eligible voters without leaving them enough time to get back on the rolls.

Youngkin fired back, calling the lawsuit “unprecedented” and a “desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy” of Virginia’s elections in a statement Friday.

Voter and immigrant rights groups have also sued, WRIC reported.

Virginia isn’t the only state finding itself in hot water.

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Alabama’s voter removal program in a lawsuit led by the DOJ and civil rights groups, the Alabama Reflector reported.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, announced a process for purging certain registered voters 84 days before the election. He took aim at 3,251 residents who had been issued non-citizen identification numbers, and referred them to Alabama’s attorney general for criminal investigation. Some of them may be naturalized and therefore eligible to vote, according to the Reflector.

Judge Anna Manasco—nominated by former President Donald Trump—wrote that Allen “blew through the deadline” and knocked him for using a methodology that could ensnare U.S. citizens.

Oregon’s governor and top elections official—both Democrats—called this month for an independent, external audit of the state’s automatic voter registration system, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. Oregon has identified about 1,500 people who were incorrectly registered to vote through the state’s motor vehicle agency.

Two lawsuits alleging Wisconsin’s voter rolls contain more than 100,000 potentially invalid registrations were filed in late September and early October, the Wisconsin Public Radio reported—also after the 90-day deadline.

Numerous ballot measures this November would bar noncitizens from voting in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Rokita is also pressing federal authorities in another letter to provide a plan for how they will verify voters’ U.S. citizenship status in response to state requests, according to the news release. Ohio and South Carolina are leading the multi-state coalition.

Morales’ office, meanwhile, is delivering “Vote Here” polling signage to county clerks offices around the state, according to an email obtained by the Capital Chronicle.

The signs will “clearly state” that only U.S. citizens can vote and that valid photo identification is required, according to Election Director Dustin Renner.

“We’ve heard concerns from you and our constituents about resident non-citizens registered to vote,” Renner wrote. “This is one way we are responding to these concerns. We hope these signs will increase voter awareness and compliance with state voting laws.”

The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.