Scott County Auditor Will Preserve Documents Requested by Iowa DCI
Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz has received notice from Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz that he will not release the names of possible foreign nationals who may have registered to vote in Scott County. Previously, Schultz had told Moritz that she would receive this list within the legal time frame for adjusting voter registration records. By law, voter registrations cannot be cancelled without the consent of the voter seventy days before an election. That deadline passed on August 28th.
"I had hoped to receive this list prior to the deadline," Moritz said. "Had he provided this list we could have begun our own investigation and possibly wrapped up this problem before the deadline. Now we have to make contingency plans on how to protect the integrity of our elections."
Schultz claims to have identified up to 3,582 possible foreign nationals who have registered to vote in Iowa since 2008. He made this discovery by comparing Iowa Department of Transportation files of foreign nationals who have Iowa drivers' licenses with the I-VOTERS database of registered Iowa voters. Schultz made this discovery in March of this year.
Schultz's announcement came in a letter addressed to Iowa County Auditors. In that letter Schultz states, "(I)t would not be appropriate for me to release any names until we have obtained access to the SAVE database and verified the names through that established procedure." "(W)e are still working with the federal government on the terms of our agreement for using SAVE," Schultz stated.
SAVE stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, an electronic database maintained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. Schultz plans to use the database to eliminate foreign nationals who have obtained citizenship status and therefore have the right to vote.
Moritz and other county auditors first learned of this issue on August 8, 2012 when DCI Agent Dan Dawson was introduced during a statewide meeting of county auditors and election staff. Dawson has been assigned to the Secretary's Office to assist in investigating voter fraud. He informed auditors of the discovery, and estimated that there could be up to 180 possible cases in Scott County. He asked county auditors for their assistance in aiding his investigation. On August 28, 2012 Moritz received a letter from the DCI requesting assistance in securing voting documents for all voters from the 2010 general election. Generally such documents are destroyed 22 months after the election.
"We have the requested documents in a locked facility and under camera," said Moritz. "As soon as we learned of this potential problem we made sure to have these documents in a secure place. Of course we would like to launch our own investigation even if the Secretary's Office did not act, and I received approval from our Board of Supervisors to hire a former election deputy on a temporary basis. Unfortunately, without access to these names we cannot act."
Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz has received notice from Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz that he will not release the names of possible foreign nationals who may have registered to vote in Scott County. Previously, Schultz had told Moritz that she would receive this list within the legal time frame for adjusting voter registration records. By law, voter registrations cannot be cancelled without the consent of the voter seventy days before an election. That deadline passed on August 28th.
"I had hoped to receive this list prior to the deadline," Moritz said. "Had he provided this list we could have begun our own investigation and possibly wrapped up this problem before the deadline. Now we have to make contingency plans on how to protect the integrity of our elections."
Schultz claims to have identified up to 3,582 possible foreign nationals who have registered to vote in Iowa since 2008. He made this discovery by comparing Iowa Department of Transportation files of foreign nationals who have Iowa drivers' licenses with the I-VOTERS database of registered Iowa voters. Schultz made this discovery in March of this year.
Schultz's announcement came in a letter addressed to Iowa County Auditors. In that letter Schultz states, "(I)t would not be appropriate for me to release any names until we have obtained access to the SAVE database and verified the names through that established procedure." "(W)e are still working with the federal government on the terms of our agreement for using SAVE," Schultz stated.
SAVE stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, an electronic database maintained by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which is a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. Schultz plans to use the database to eliminate foreign nationals who have obtained citizenship status and therefore have the right to vote.
Moritz and other county auditors first learned of this issue on August 8, 2012 when DCI Agent Dan Dawson was introduced during a statewide meeting of county auditors and election staff. Dawson has been assigned to the Secretary's Office to assist in investigating voter fraud. He informed auditors of the discovery, and estimated that there could be up to 180 possible cases in Scott County. He asked county auditors for their assistance in aiding his investigation. On August 28, 2012 Moritz received a letter from the DCI requesting assistance in securing voting documents for all voters from the 2010 general election. Generally such documents are destroyed 22 months after the election.
"We have the requested documents in a locked facility and under camera," said Moritz. "As soon as we learned of this potential problem we made sure to have these documents in a secure place. Of course we would like to launch our own investigation even if the Secretary's Office did not act, and I received approval from our Board of Supervisors to hire a former election deputy on a temporary basis. Unfortunately, without access to these names we cannot act."
