Two Maine citizens have threatened to sue Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for improper voter roll maintenance unless action is taken within ninety days.
Alex Titcomb — co-founder and Executive Director of The Dinner Table PAC — and Kristin Tripp allege that all sixteen counties in the state have an implausible, and in some cases impossible, share of registered voters.
In eleven counties, they calculated that the number of registered voters exceeded the county’s entire voting age population, and in the remaining five they found a registration rate of over 95 percent, far outpacing the nationwide registration rate in recent elections.
Based on an analysis of publicly available voter registration records and voting age population data from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017-2022 American County Survey, Titcomb and Tripp reported having found that eleven Maine counties have between 100.14 percent and 110.11 percent voter registration rates. The remaining five were calculated as ranging from 95.03 percent to 98.72 percent.
Titcomb and Tripp’s legal team note in their letter that the U.S. Census Bureau has calculated the nationwide voter registration rate as of the November 2022 election was just 69.1 percent.
“This evidence shows that these local jurisdictions are not conducting appropriate list maintenance to ensure that the voter registration roll is accurate and current, as required by federal law,” attorneys from the Holtzman Vogel law firm representing Titcomb and Tripp wrote in their letter.
“Retaining voter rolls bloated with ineligible voters harms the electoral process, heightens the risk of electoral fraud, and undermines public confidence in elections,” they continued.
The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) includes a private right of action that empowers anyone “who is aggrieved by a violation” of the statute to bring a civil case in federal district court to obtain declaratory or injunctive relief.
According to the U.S. Department of the Justice (DOJ), the NVRA was passed in 1993 and outlines “certain voter registration requirements” for participating in federal elections, such as offering registration opportunities at the Department of Motor Vehicles, by mail, and at certain state and local offices.
The NVRA also requires states to “implement procedures to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists.”
Titcomb and Tripp’s legal team states in their letter that they “will have no choice by to file a lawsuit” against the Secretary of State — and “if appropriate” against local officials involved in voter list maintenance — unless the identified violations “are not corrected within 90 days of receipt.”
To resolve the issues outlined in their letter, Titcomb and Tripp’s lawyers ask the Secretary of State to evaluate current list maintenance procedures, modify the process to ensure it is “comprehensive, nondiscriminatory, and in compliance with federal law,” and identify and remove ineligible voters.
They also ask to receive a written response with 45 days describing “the efforts, policies, and program” being implemented to bring the state into compliance.
“Maine’s failure to provide accurate voter rolls violates federal law, jeopardizes the integrity of the upcoming federal election, and signals to voters that elections in Maine are not being properly safeguarded,” the attorneys wrote in their letter to Secretary Bellows.
“We look forward to working with you in a productive fashion to ensure the accuracy and currency of Maine’s voter rolls and to protect the integrity of its voting process,” they concluded.
Click Here to Read the Full Text of the Letter
A Maine Wire review of publicly available voter registration data from the Maine Secretary of State’s Office and 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018-2022 American Community Survey showed Maine’s overall voter registration rate at 102.59 percent — with 1,145,052 active and inactive registered voters as of the November 2022 election and an estimated 1,116,133 residents age 18 and over in 2022.
Using county-level data from these same sources, the Maine Wire was able to replicate statistics similar to those presented in the letter. A full summary of these numbers and the resulting calculations are shown below.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5-year estimates represent a period estimate — as opposed to a point-in-time estimate — using data collected over a 60-month period. These data sets are based on the largest sample size and are typically considered to be the most reliable.
These figures are included here for illustrative purposes only and are intended to show how one may use publicly available data to come up with statistics and reach conclusions similar to those advanced by Titcomb and Tripp’s attorneys.
“Maine’s bloated voter rolls put the state in clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act,” Executive Director of Honest Elections Project Jason Snead said in a statement shared with the Maine Wire.
“Secretary Bellows’s failure to regularly clean Maine’s voter rolls presents a real threat to the integrity of the state’s elections,” he continued. “This is particularly true following reports that state officials are failing to act on allegations that noncitizens are registered to vote.”
“Honest Elections Project applauds the Mainers who are working to remedy these issues and keep Maine’s voter rolls clean and accurate,” he concluded.
