Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz told a legislative rules committee on Tuesday that he’s not trying to give an advantage to any candidates in November but only doing his job by passing emergency voter rules to ensure only U.S. citizens vote. Schultz defended the rules before the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee when confronted by some of the group’s Democrats who said the rules will intimidate Hispanic voters, and perhaps others, and scare them away from voting. Sen. Tom Courtney, of Burlington, said many Latinos he’s talked to in his district are afraid election officials are going to try to keep them from voting. “These are good people who happen to be naturalized American citizens and they want to vote. They want to do their part. They’re scared, Mr. Secretary,” Courtney said. “This scares them and I don’t like that. We’ve never had that in this state. We’ve always been above board and everybody voted.”
Schultz, a Republican, approved the rules in July on an emergency basis without public input, saying he had to act before the November election to ensure noncitizens don’t vote. Schultz said he has compared voter registration rolls with an Iowa Department of Transportation driver’s license list and it indicated 3,500 noncitizens who obtained licenses may have registered to vote in Iowa and that 1,208 of them may have voted in the 2010 general election. Critics said the DOT list is outdated and many of those listed as noncitizens likely have gained citizenship before registering to vote.
Full Article: Schultz defends emergency voter rules to lawmakers – SFGate.