On Friday, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey sent a second letter to the Maine Wire reiterating Maine Democratic leaders’ request for us to turn over information that would expose a source.
The letter came in response to our reporting that non-citizens are illegally registered to vote in Maine and that votes have been cast in their names since 2016.
Our report was based on Medicaid records provided to us by a whistleblower. Those records contained descriptions of 18 Maine residents as non-citizens. When cross-referenced with voting data, the results show six of those individuals are registered to vote and five have voted — or had votes cast in their names —since 2016.
Rather than investigate the problem, the Mills administration and her Democrat party allies have decided to attack the messenger and hunt down my source. In his first letter, AG Frey joined Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in asking for the Maine Wire to turn over a broad array of records. This second letter, from which Bellows is curiously absent, has narrowed the request to just a list of names, dates of birth, and addresses.
As with the first request, my answer to Mr. Frey is, respectfully, no.
Readers may be confused as to why an investigative news outlet alleging that non-citizens are illegally voting in Maine’s elections would decline to turn over proof of those election crimes.
Allow me to explain.
The list of names we have could be used to narrow down the list of Medicaid-billing firms in Maine to a short list, perhaps a single firm. From there, the list of people with access to those records is probably small. In short, turning over these names would allow the government to go on a source hunt, identify and punish the source, and make an example of someone who dared to blow the whistle on what they viewed as wrong. Indeed, they’ve probably already spent more time trying to persecute my source than identify how many non-citizens are registered to vote.
Mr. Frey insists that his intention is not to hunt down a whistleblower. I find his assurances unpersuasive. The Mills Administration has seldom missed an opportunity to punish someone who dared question the official progressive narrative — ask Rick Savage or Dr. Meryl Nass. I also know that his office is incapable of handling sensitive data securely, a fact I learned when they accidentally sent me his new girl friend’s Social Security Number (SSN).
Believe me, it’s tempting to post the records on social media and prove publicly that my reporting is accurate, that what we’ve reported is true. But doing so would be ethically wrong and would doubtlessly prevent future whistleblowers from coming forward. So no, I will not turn over the names. Frankly, I’m a little surprised by the lack of reaction to this inquisition from other media outlets. There used to be unanimous agreement among media that journalists don’t give up sources for convenience, but I suppose that’s an instinct you can only develop if you actually have sources.
Contrary to assertions from Democratic leaders, my commitment to protecting sources from government reprisal is not standing in the way of an investigation they claim to want. If they’re truly interested in rooting out non-citizen voting, they have the power to easily do so, as all of the records are government records. Nothing stands in the way of the Department of Health and Human Services comparing their data on non-citizens receiving welfare benefits to non-citizens who are registered to vote — unless they’re scared of how big that number might be.
Secondly, but no less important, Mr. Frey says he is demanding a list of non-citizens so that he may prosecute them. He makes no pretense otherwise. If you missed that part where immigration advocacy groups across the state condemned his rush to judgement, you’re not the only one… In both letters, he proclaims these non-citizens are criminals and he wants to track them down and punish them. Nowhere does Mr. Frey indicate that he’s open to the possibility that these non-citizens are the victims of a kind of identity theft, perhaps carried out for the benefit of narrow political interests and left-wing activists.
My strong suspicion, based on unpublished details in these records, is that most of these individuals did not register themselves to vote and are likely unaware that they are registered to vote. Similarly, I suspect that most of them are not voting but are instead having votes cast in their names. These are merely informed suspicions about how individuals described as non-citizens by MaineCare records came to be registered as voters.
Could a non-English speaking illegal alien with “no cognitive capacity” and serious intellectual disabilities have registered themselves to vote in June? I suppose it’s possible. But it seems more likely that *someone* is “helping” non-citizens register to vote for some ulterior purpose. Because these voters may be the victims of a crime, rather than the agents of a crime as Mr. Frey’s letters have implied, it would be wrong to expose them to a zealous politician who has twice now boasted that he’s already rendered a judgment on them — even without an investigation into how they came to be registered to vote.
For those two reasons — the protection of journalistic sources and the protection of non-citizens who may be victims of crime — I will not now, or ever, give those names to Mr. Frey. If he decides to send me a subpoena, I will be forced to ignore it. Sources who take big risks to shed light on wrongdoing deserve nothing less than the utmost protection from mere journalists.
[Blow your own whistle: [email protected]…]
However, the problem remains that we have an untold number of non-citizens registered to vote.
Maine’s current laws against non-citizen voting would be akin to having cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol remain illegal for minors but only ever verifying the customer’s age by asking if they’re old enough. Seriously: In Maine, the only proof of citizenship that is required to register to vote is a non-citizen — or the activist helping them register — promising that they’re a legal voter. Though Mr. Frey and Sec. Bellows say that it would be wrong for non-citizens to vote in our elections, the Democrats in control of Augusta have made it incredibly easy, and they’ve opposed simple measures to protect the integrity of elections.
Rather than lay out the steps they’ll take to prevent non-citizens from becoming registered to vote and having votes cast in their names, the Democrats have hurled opprobrium at the Maine Wire. Perhaps they aimed to give the impression that they take non-citizen voting seriously (they don’t) or to create the appearance that I don’t have proof of non-citizen voting (I do).
[RELATED: Mills, Bellows Cozy with Progressive Group ‘Studying’ Noncitizen Voting in Maine…]
We now know—as an indisputable matter of fact—that a certain number of non-citizens are illegally registered to vote, perhaps even an election-tipping number. We’ve briefed several members of the Maine media, law enforcement officials, and many elected officials, and none have disputed that the records we have are authentic and prove what we’ve claimed. We have yet to refuse to show the records to a single person who has asked, as long as they agree to protect the identities as we are. Non-citizen votes are canceling out the votes of U.S. citizens in Maine elections. The only thing we don’t know is whether it’s six votes, sixty votes, six thousand votes, sixty thousand votes, or more.
So what do we do about it?
We have suggested that the State simply use the method we did in our original reporting to identify non-citizen voters. Bellows, in a bratty letter to Republican leaders, alleges that this would violate privacy laws. In the letter, however, Bellows appears to agree that if such a method could be used by the State, it should be and would be. Happily, the process can work the other way without any risk to privacy rules.
That is, DHHS, which already has the Medicaid (MaineCare) data, can cross-check the publicly available Secretary of State voter records with MaineCare patients described as “2-Legal Alien” and “3-Other” to determine conclusively how many non-citizens are registered to vote. This would entail no violation of privacy rules. The data analysis process would be quite simple. Bellows and a few DHHS employees could produce by the end of the week a number — the official number of non-citizens registered to vote in Maine. They could even see how many non-citizen votes have been cast in recent elections. If they dared, the could even look at how many elections were won or lost by margins smaller than the provable non-citizen vote.
Nothing is preventing this from being done but an order from Gov. Janet Mills.
Now, the Federal Voting Rights Act prevents any changes to voter rolls so close to an election, even if it would prevent non-citizens from voting illegally. However, the Secretary of State’s office is currently spending enormous amounts of money putting Bellows’ face on TV screens. And the Mills Administration has spent more than $115,000 buying positive news articles from the Press Herald. So what, then, is stopping them from spending a little marketing dough advising non-citizens that they may be committing deportable offenses if they register to vote or vote — even if a smiling political activist told them otherwise?
The evidence suggests that a large number of “New Mainers” may find themselves at the front line of a deportation effort under a potential future Trump Administration for being illegally registered to vote or having had votes cast illegally in their names. Will Mills and Bellows do anything to protect this vulnerable population from unwittingly risking their refugee or asylum claims, or their green cards? Or will they sit back and hope that the votes of non-citizens are counted in Maine’s elections, as they were in 2016 and 2020, effectively canceling and nullifying the votes of U.S. citizens? The reaction so far seems to indicate that Mills & Co. are content to let non-citizens continue risking their legal statuses so long as it benefits the Democrat Party.
For a more in-depth discussion of our reporting, check out MPI’s Pine Tree Pulse podcast episode on the topic:
Why are illegals receiving our tax dollars in the form of welfare? Do not turn over any of the information, ever.
We get it. Bellows wants these records, NOT to prosecute the illegals involved, but to get to the source of this “leak” and prosecute the leaker if at all possible.
Its incredible, as soon as this was exposed all the libs around me preach, “they wont release the evidence, they must be lying”. Amazing, they are so liberally imbedded and conditioned they have zero concern for anything now. Any rational person would at a minimum treat it as a big deal and look into the matter themself.
Great reporting and your integrity is most valued and appreciated! Thanks much!
Thank you for taking the time to explain your actions. I wouldn’t trust Czarina Mills, Bellows, or Fry to give me the correct time of day.
Well one of the reasons illegals are being brought into our country is to have them vote.
These dishonest leftists don’t care about law when it comes to themselves.
They want power.
You are right that they’d more likely go after the whistle-blower.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” as a great American just said.
The Mills administration is a nest of communist criminals with nothing but contempt for the hardworking citizens of Maine.
A day of reckoning is at hand.
Stick to your guns Steve !
Let them do their own damn investigation . They have police . They have investigators . Let them clean up their own mess . Aaron Frey is not your pal . Actually probably no one in the Mills regime is . You are the ONLY one telling Maine what is happening here . Don’t give an inch to these people .
This crew in Augusta is piece of work . It’s time to send them packing .
After listening to the podcast, my thoughts were that the democrats will find a way to waive the deportation process for the illegals who may have ‘inadvertently’ registered to vote or voted? Don’t get me wrong, I like Steve’s argument, it’s something I hadn’t considered.
Tell them nothing!!!! The Communists want this so they can cheat and rig elections. Oh that’s right Mainers don’t care as long as they are getting their welfare checks and now rent checks if they are being evicted!! Mainers love being on the government payroll so they can sit home and do nothing!!
LOL! It’s hard to turn over records which don’t exist.
Please don’t turn over any documents . I’d they find the whistle-blower, they will arrest and try them . Lookat IRSand the Honest FBI agents. NEVER TRUST GOVERNMENT, ESP THE DEMOCRATS!
I’m sure if they could , they’d love to know who all of us are , so they can sick their minions on us too.
Is it me or does that guy in the picture look like a young version of Vladimir Putin ….
Maine Wire …tell them no . We Don’t Work for You You Work for Us .
Great reporting and well written Steve. Just be careful Mills and Ci. are criminals. I don’t know this Frey guy or Shenna, but I’ve known Janet since the 80’s and she hasn’t changed, just polished up the act.
Just look at pic. All you need to know
This is something that Democrats did to my mother in 2020! My mother was a resident at St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation and Residence in Portland. She did not have the mental capacity to fill out her own ballot due to severe dementia. My mother voted in the 2020 election? The Democratic Party weaseled into nursing homes and took advantage of people filling out the ballots and voting for them.
Despicable Deplorable Behavior! This is Elder Abuse! My mother passed in 2022 and she will probably be voting for Kamala Harris this election? I would like to know if she does?
I couldn’t agree more with you on your stance. This bunch can’t be trusted further than I can throw the State House. They are contemptable at best from Mills on down
Do your job Governor!!!
. . . . because it doesn’t have any such records
Republican conservatives are domestic terrorists. After this election, they will be rounded up and put in fema camps
There is more proof to this story than proof that Blasey Ford was sexually assaulted by Kavenaugh or that Trump engaged in sex with the nutty E.Jean Carrol.
Very well-done MW!! AG,NPR, GLOBE, all firing in anger, “|f you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target”!!