'Some noncitizens' on the voter rolls: Maine secretary of state resists efforts for election transparency

Despite recent efforts by Republicans across the country to shore up election integrity, Maine has been under scrutiny about its voter rolls. Now, the Republican National Committee is demanding accountability.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has allegedly been stonewalling RNC and federal efforts to obtain up-to-date voter role information as required by the National Voter Registration Act.

'Despite admitting that noncitizens are registered to vote in Maine’s elections, Shenna Bellows continues to block efforts to clean up the voter rolls.'

In a complaint letter obtained by Blaze News addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, RNC chief counsel Mandy Lester accused the Maine secretary of state of violating the requirements of the NVRA.

Dating back to March 25 of this year, the RNC requested that the secretary of state, who is the chief election officer of the state, provide records pertaining to Maine's voter list maintenance system.

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Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Bellows' office acknowledged the request on May 4 but apparently failed to provide any of the requested information. Following two months of silence and a reminder from the RNC on July 23, Bellows' office responded that the records could be provided within "'36 to 48 months' provided that the RNC was willing to pay $23,000.00 for the requested records," according to the complaint.

The letter noted that these conditions were "intentionally prohibitive and contravene the NVRA's clear commitment toward transparent government and public accountability."

Perhaps central to transparency concerns raised by the RNC and Department of Justice was the secretary's assertion that her office could not fulfill the request for voter information between the window of the November 2022 general election through the close of registration for the November 2024 general election because "the Department conducted its last list address confirmation mailing in June of 2022," per the complaint.

The complaint also cited a clip of an interview on lawyer Marc Elias' podcast in which Bellows admitted that she was "sure" that there were noncitizens on the voter rolls: "And guess what? There are duplicates on the voter rolls because people don't tell their clerks when they move. Not duplicate voters, but duplicate registrants. ... I'm sure there are, in some isolated instances, some noncitizens [...] on the rolls. And that's what the election officials do every day is verify the integrity of the voter rolls."

“Despite admitting that noncitizens are registered to vote in Maine’s elections, Shenna Bellows continues to block efforts to clean up the voter rolls,” said RNC Chairman Joe Gruters. “Bellows is undermining Maine's elections and betraying the trust of every Maine voter."

Bellows framed the federal government's scrutiny of Maine's voter rolls as an encroachment of power: "So are they looking for that one or two or three cases to try to impinge and just attack the integrity of our elections? Are they trying to create a pretext for more federal involvement in our elections? Are they trying to take down secretaries of state they don't like? Or is it a combination of things?"

The RNC letter concludes with an urgent request for an "immediate federal investigation within the Department of Justice's statutory authority," emphasizing that this matter requires the DOJ's "prompt attention."

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