Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) lost an election for the town of Allagash select board on March 24. Afterward, he demanded a recount, claiming that the original election process somehow produced the wrong result.
The Maine Wire — unlike Maine’s other media outlets — took the allegation of voter fraud by Maine’s most powerful state lawmaker very, very seriously. So we were on the scene to investigate and document for posterity as Allagash officials got to the bottom of this nefarious conspiracy to undermine democracy.
Unfortunately for Mr. Jackson, the recount only reaffirmed his loss to Allagash First Select Person Karie Kelly.
However, Jackson’s allegation of voter fraud and his insistence on a recount struck many at the State House as unusual considering Democratic officials this session have rejected attempts at passing election integrity bills.
During public hearings for voter ID bills, for example, liberal lawmakers insisted that such safeguards are unnecessary because election irregularities are vanishingly rare.
But now that Jackson believes he was victimized by ballot tampering, some Republicans wondered whether he’d changed his mind about securing Maine’s elections.
Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-Fairfield) was one of those Republicans, and she took advantage of a moment in the Taxation Committee to ask Jackson the question that was on everyone’s mind.
Sadly, thanks to the diligence of Taxation Committee chair person in protecting the Senate President from answering a simple question, the world may never know whether Jackson’s had a change of heart.