Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced Friday her office is leading the prosecution of a non-U.S. citizen charged with election misconduct for illegally registering to vote and voting.
According to Bird’s office, 42-year-old Jorge Oscar Sanchez-Vasquez of Marshalltown was arrested and charged for allegedly voting in a July special election for the Marshalltown City Council. He is a legal resident of the U.S. but is not a citizen.
The attorney general’s office has sole authority to prosecute state-level election crimes, after a state government reorganization law took that power away from county attorneys in 2023.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said he has not seen widespread problems with noncitizens voting in Iowa’s elections.
“The law says very clearly you have to be a U.S. citizen to vote,” he said. “We have voter ID, so we are establishing a baseline of, you have to prove who you are. We also are working with our partners. We work with the court system. There’s various partners who help us identify those folks who are here legally, but not U.S. citizens.”