Maine Director of Elections and Voter Registration Heidi Peckham sent out a notice to municipal clerks warning them to follow procedures requiring voters to be citizens after an independent journalist exposed how easily non-citizens can vote in the state.
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“A group in Maine is calling towns and pretending to ask about how to register their friend to vote, and their friend is from another country. They are asking about what documentation is needed to register and if citizenship status is checked. These calls are being recorded and posted to social media,” said Peckham in the email obtained by The Maine Wire.
“This email is to alert you to these calls and provide warning that you may be recorded. Please remember to follow all standard procedures regarding voter registration provided by this office, including that all applicants must be U.S. citizens,” she added.
The email came in response to independent journalist The Unquirer, who has recently been calling town offices, asking how he can help a non-English-speaking Angolan immigrant vote in order to expose the lack of election integrity measures in Maine.
In a call, a Falmouth clerk repeatedly confirmed that there is no check to determine whether someone applying for a ballot is a citizen; the person registering to vote must simply check a box claiming to be one.
At the outset of the call, the Inquirer claims that his friend does not speak English, and the clerk continues to attempt to assist him in obtaining a ballot, despite the requirement for foreigners to pass a test determining that they can speak English as a prerequisite for citizenship.
“He wants to register for this election. The only problem is that he’s going to go back to Angola during the election. Can he get an absentee ballot?” said the Inquirer in the recorded call.
The clerk was apparently so eager to help the non-English speaker vote in Maine that she interrupted the Inquirer to confirm that his friend could vote from Angola.
“If he goes to the Secretary of State, they’ll just email him the ballot, and then he can email it back,” said the clerk.
She also claimed that they could have the ballot mailed to a PO box in Maine, and then a third party could take that ballot from the PO box and mail it to Angola.
During the call, the clerk also agreed with the proposition that “no one is illegal on stolen land” and said that she believes America to be stolen land.
She then falsely claimed that it is not illegal to illegally cross the border.
“It’s not illegal. It’s an administrative, it’s an administrative, what do they call it? It is not illegal to cross the border. It is an administrative um… not, no, no, I can’t think of the right word [sic],” said the clerk.
“It’s a misdemeanour, it’s a misdemeanour, it’s not something that you’re going to get, that they charge. It’s not like a felony, or, or, yeah [sic],” she added.
Notably, misdemeanors are also crimes.
The Unquirer has also had similar calls with other town offices, including those in Rockland and Orono.
