(Des Moines, Iowa) – Supporters said a bill requiring Iowa driver’s licenses to list a person’s citizenship status would help prevent non-citizens from participating in elections — but other advocates said it could lead to discrimination against immigrants and confusion at the ballot box.

According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the legislation, House Study Bill 37, would require a person’s citizenship status to be listed on the back of their driver’s license or non-operator identification card. People applying for renewal or the issuing of new IDs would be required to provide the Iowa Department of Transportation with their status as a U.S. citizen or non-citizen.

To register to vote at the polls in Iowa, people must show a photo ID — like a driver’s license — as well as proof of their current residence, but do not have to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Connie Ryan with the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa said including citizenship information on driver’s licenses could create problems for immigrants who become naturalized citizens seeking to legally vote. If a person gets their driver’s license before they become a U.S. citizen and that information is put on a driver’s license, there’s no requirement for the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to update voter rolls when that immigrant is naturalized.

In the 2024 general election, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate issued guidance to county auditors to challenge the ballots of 2,176 registered voters, identified as potential non-citizens by the office as they had identified themselves to the Iowa DOT or another government entity as non-citizens within the past 12 years. While some current non-citizens were found on Iowa’s voter roles, many of these individuals listed were U.S. citizens who had obtained citizenship and the legal right to vote in the years after identifying themselves to the state as a non-citizen.

Pate has said the directive was necessary because the federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office withheld citizenship information on the individuals identified as potential non-citizens. He released his own legislative proposal earlier in January to address citizenship verification, a bill that allow the Secretary of State’s office to contract with state and federal agencies, in collaboration with private vendors, to verify registered voters’ citizenship.

Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, said she did not believe the driver’s license proposal was the best way to address concerns about non-citizens participating in Iowa elections because of the potential for discrimination when putting citizenship status on an ID like a driver’s license. Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said the bill’s focus was on ensuring that only U.S. citizens are participating in elections.

Wheeler told reporters that there areas to “flesh out” in the bill, such as what information would be listed on IDs, if citizenship status would have to be listed on other photo IDs accepted for voter registration and whether driver’s licenses would be required to be updated after a change in citizenship status.

The subcommittee advanced the legislation 2-1, with James voting against.