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.
no one votes these democrats in, no one is voting yes on school budgets etc. etc. etc. THE STEAL IS REAL! its been happening your whole life! vote vote vote! make it to big to rig!
Geee…..good thing this kind of mess is found out well before an election.
ooooops
She is a lye and a cheat
Make it a class action
Where can l sign up?
Shenna Bellows is Trump-hating garbage
Bellows should already be in prison for election interference!
#ShennaSwallows
So will the Globe go after Titcomb & Tripp now?
Of course the state is corrupt.
Soros has bought and paid for hundreds of politicians in ME.
She’s only interested in keeping people off ballots.
We knew this in 2020 and no one wanted to deal with it…swept under the rug.
I know of a score of names in Naples that should not be on the voter registration list: my son being one of them. It seems to be like jumping through hoops trying to get them removed. Deceased – I have been told I need a ‘death certificate’. Voting elsewhere I have been informed that my town needs a certified letter from his new voting precinct (and even then they can ignore it). Are these true policies/laws?
If I disclose any names I can be fined $1k for the first offense and then $5k for each additional name disclosed. This is hard to believe! Is this right?
I believe that the court has ruled organizations can work to correct the voter rolls but is it possible for an individual to work to that end?
This is too little too late for this election. Bellows succeeded in avoiding her duty as our Secretary of State.
Where is ERIC or is that just used to identify new democrat voters?
For a group whose favorite war cry is “democracy” they sure do piss all over it a lot.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
“unless action is taken within ninety days”…gee….maybe we could’ve done something 6 months ago ? DUH ! This is why we’ll have a “president” KumHola in a week……
Nice article, but isn’t it wasted? Seems a bit late for anything to be done, even if they wanted to, which I’m sure they don’t.
Baldwin, Maine is having “problems” with the voting machine not accepting ballots.
Long lines, people are suspicious.
absurd display of mismangement, fire her, Dems never fire anyone.
Today is the day, get out ‘n vote if you haven’t already,…..
I’m voting today, Trump for President, all the way acrost the ballot,….
Voting red, top to bottom, ‘n all the way acrost in the fucked up ranked choice voting sections,….
Shenna Bellows should be sued for impersonating ET.
I’m jealous. This is too much fun to not be shared. It is obvious that the people doing the counting have six fingers and six toes to count with. The scenario presented by this pair is all too probable. It is highly likely that there are dead people on the roll, and many people who have moved away without an address change being processed. It’s going to be a tedious process, but I’m glad someone is finally calling the cards. Now flip them over and see who has four Aces.
Glad to volunteer some time if needed. Federal frauds usually end up with lengthy imprisonment.
State rep wanted to shake my hand at the pols this morning. I ask her what the projected deficit was for 25, no answer, I think she was shocked that I ask a question. I ask what her plan was to deal with the deficit, no answer. “raise taxes” I ask? no answer. Despicable, only a moron would vote for this piece of work again.
I arrived in Maine in the late 90’s, and soon began getting active in local and state “affairs.” One of these situations was when a bill was proposed to limit college student voting to only those who were legitimately state residents, as defined by the Maine Constitution, which states that attendance at any seminary of learning does not make one a state resident.
I was doing some basic research on election history, and recall finding a case in then recent history where voter turnout for a statewide election had exceeded the total of registered voters.
Add that to registered voters exceeding eligible voters, and you have a system that only power seeking politicians could love, along with wokesters, one of the earliest of which was our current SOS, then head of the Maine ACLU, who threatened to sue anyone who challenged students showing up to vote at local polls.
If you want a really first rate example of “nothing to see here” rhetoric, read this item from today’s WSJ:
I think they emptied their six-shooters into their feet.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/you-can-trust-the-vote-count-election-2024-georgia-utah-republican-officials-1d5130bb?st=afQdJG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Bellows is a POS Maine could do without!
MAINERS… WE NEED TO GET RID OF RANK CHOICE VOTING …. THEY TRICKED ALOT OF PEOPLE , ESPECIALLY ELDERLY PEOPLE INTO VOTING FOR IT… USING THEIR “YES MEANS NO , AND NO MEANS YES FORM OF VOTING.. WHAT THE HECK WAS WRONG WITH SIMPLE 1 VOTE 1 BALLOT… SO EASY AND UNCOMPLICATED…
I am 100% behind cleaning up the voter rolls. #1 photo ID.
I Checked the voter rolls in my town and there is someone on the rolls that registered to vote in 1850 and is still on the active voter roll. I call BS and questioned it as a conservative and as an active election worker. And the word came down from on high “Bellows” that as an active member of the town republican committee I was ineligible to work elections, I resigned, then “Bellows” came out and said i couldn’t even attend meetings, at that point I started asking questions to people in authority, to which the heat got too much and she retracted that edict. Then surprise, she shows up at the next primary election, never been there before, but, there she was with some crappy store bought cookies and stupid smile. Bellows has been a failure at everything she’s done, and she is blatantly evil in her actions.
Sena is accountable to who? Read that she is getting prepared to run for Governor. Scary.
With this report, should Austin Theriault request an audit of the election results?
Bellows was just doing Soros’s bidding. She sleeps with the enemy.
The public deserves corruption free elections…….it is absolutely necessary.
Since when does Maine award 3 electoral votes to district 1 and 1 electoral vote to district 2!?!?
Smiling like Cheshire Cats.
Judicial Watch already proved Maine intentionally restricts transparency and access to our voter roles. Manipulating turnout rates starts with creating huge voter roles. A 70% turnout rate becomes 90%, historically impossible, after cleaning the voter roles.
Is Opera allowed to vote in Maine?
If she is not doing her job why is she still employed?