Iowa’s rejection of ballots from people misidentified as felons is believed to be in violation of federal law and must be remedied, two high-profile voter advocacy groups told Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate.

The June 13 letter from the Brennan Center for Justice and the League of Women Voters of Iowa outlines seven minimum steps the groups say Iowa must take. An attorney for the Brennan Center said the state could face a civil action in federal court if it doesn't act within 90 days.

The letter was obtained by the Register this week after it was inadvertently published with information intended for voter advocates. Neither group sought the media's attention, saying there is a concerted effort to work behind the scenes to fix the problems.

“The point of our notice letters is to avoid litigation,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, an attorney for the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan institute based at the New York University School of Law. “They’re intended to alert secretaries of states to issues we see and to find ways to assist them in resolving those issues.”

Iowa court administrators this year adopted measures to improve the felon database's accuracy through a new review system, although some county auditors — including those in Polk, Johnson and Linn counties — said this week they have ongoing concerns.

Pate — who has publicly said he's frustrated with the list's imperfections — had not responded to the group's letter as of Wednesday afternoon. His staff said he was pursuing administrative rule changes that would require courts to provide proof of conviction documents anytime felonies are submitted for inclusion on the felon list.

Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Pate, said the exact language of the proposed rule change has not been finalized, and he declined to share a copy with the Register. It remained unclear Wednesday how comprehensive the proposed changes would be and whether they would address all seven steps outlined in the June 13 letter.

"This additional step will help ensure the accuracy of the felon database and relieve some of the burden on county auditors," Hall said, noting that auditors — not his office — have the legal authority to cancel a voter's registration.

Only in Iowa and Kentucky

Iowa and Kentucky are the only states that permanently ban felons from voting unless the governor or president individually restores their rights.

The Brennan Center launched its own assessment of Iowa voter system after a Register investigation earlier this year found that the list of roughly 70,000 people that Iowa uses to disqualify voters has inaccuracies that result in wrongly rejected ballots.

Iowa election officials have been aware of the problems since at least 2012. Pate’s staff “correctively restored” 2,591 records in 2016, putting those Iowans back on the voting rolls, state records obtained and published by the Register show.

But problems have persisted with dozens of voters' ballots being wrongly rejected in 2017 and 2018 elections, the Register found in a six-county review of voter records.

Additionally, Iowa’s list of felons is widely incomplete, the Register found. Information about felonies committed in other states is added from federal courts only if a convict provides an Iowa residential address to the courts. And there's no systematic process for adding data from the nation's 49 other state courts, according to Molly Widen, an attorney in Pate’s office.

Following the Register’s initial stories about the list's problems, the Brennan Center independently obtained public voter data from the same six counties reviewed by the Register — Polk, Dallas, Black Hawk, Johnson, Linn and Story — and concluded the records “reflect a practice of canceling voter registrations based on incorrect criminal history information.”

The group believes the inequities violate the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law known as NVRA that allows the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue civil actions against states that violate voter registration practices.

Multiple voters whose ballots were wrongfully rejected in 2017 and 2018 told the Register they received no prior notification that they were considered ineligible to vote until receiving notice following elections that their ballots had been rejected. The Brennan Center said in the letter to Pate that they believe that to be in violation of state law, which requires Iowans be notified of their voter registration cancellation by county election commissioners.

The errors are problematic not only because they inaccurately suppress votes; people who wrongfully cast ballots due to inaccuracies or misinformation can face criminal prosecution, the Register found.

Center officials spoke with Pate’s staff about the issues before sending the June letter and were told the Secretary of State’s office is merely “a conduit for conviction information,” and that Iowa law does not require the office to verify that information before passing it to the county auditors.

But the Brennan Center, quoting sections of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, criticized that response.

“As ‘the chief state election official responsible for coordination of state responsibilities’ under the NVRA, your office is responsible for voter list maintenance programs that ensure ‘an accurate and current voter registration roll’ and that are ‘uniform and nondiscriminatory,’” according to the letter signed by Sweren-Becker and League of Women Voters of Iowa President Terese Grant.

Pate has declined multiple requests for interviews about the felon issues since December. In a statement to the Register two days before the Jan. 13 publication of its initial investigation, he said he has "dedicated significant time and resources" to fixing the problem.

► Database: Iowa's list of felons ineligible to vote

He emphasized that his office doesn't create the data but instead serves as a conduit between the state's court system and auditors. He provided the Register with a seven-step flowchart for how Iowa's felon data and voting rights review is supposed to go.

Pate's staff members contend in written responses that the onus is on county auditors to make sure a voter's ballot isn't wrongly rejected.

"I share the frustrations people have with a system that is not perfect," Pate said in January.

Iowa's differing directives

Part of the problem associated with Iowa’s list is confusion: Different governors have issued conflicting directives through executive orders, according to state documents and interviews with felons and county auditors across the state.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, in 2005 ordered automatic restoration upon completion of sentences. But shortly after his 2011 election, former Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, rescinded Vilsack’s order and reinstated the ban on felon voting unless an individual secures permission from the governor.

Because of those differing executive orders, felons who completed their sentences before 2011 have retained their voter rights, while others who were convicted or finished their sentences after that date are ineligible to vote.

Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, this year urged lawmakers to launch a process to amend Iowa’s constitution and restore voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences. But the effort died in the Senate, where members of her party voiced concern about specifics behind the move, specifically what defines a “completed sentence.”

Reynolds has said she has avoided signing the state’s third executive order on the matter to avoid further confusion. Her office did not respond Wednesday for comment about the Brennan Center letter.

"I am disappointed in today's setback, but I will not give up the fight for Iowans who deserve a second chance," Reynolds said April 4 when Senate Republicans acknowledged the constitutional amendment effort was dead for this year’s legislative session.

Grant, president of the League of Women Voters of Iowa, believes Reynolds could avoid potentially expensive and unnecessary litigation by signing an executive order while continuing to push for a constitutional amendment as a more permanent fix.

“These are extremely serious problems,” Grant said. “Our mission is to work with the state. It’s very frustrating to have to take this approach, but I don’t know what else we can do.”

Do you have a voter issue to share? Contact investigative reporter Jason Clayworth at jclayworth@dmreg.com or 515-699-7058.

The minimum steps Pate must take, according to the Brennan Center: