Maine Sec. of State swatted after removing Trump from ballot
Just days after removing former President Donald Trump from the Maine ballot, authorities say Secretary of State Shenna Bellows became the target of a fake 911 swatting call. Trump did eventually appear on the ballot.
Fox – 5 Atlanta
A May 20 Real Raw News article claims Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows faces serious legal trouble for a decision she made against former President Donald Trump.
“The U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps convicted and sentenced to death Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Wednesday for intentionally misconstruing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to stop President Trump’s name from appearing on the state’s primary ballot last December,” the article begins.
The article was shared more than 100 times on Facebook according to CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool.
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There is no credible evidence Bellows was ever charged with a crime, much less convicted of one and sentenced. She appeared in public after the date of her supposed arrest. Real Raw News frequently publishes false claims about the arrests of high-profile figures.
In December 2023, Maine voters challenged Trump’s nomination petition, saying he engaged in insurrection against the U.S. for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
After a hearing, Bellows decided that Trump was ineligible to appear on the ballot due to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars people from holding several public offices if they took an oath to support the Constitution and later “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
Bellows became the second secretary of state to remove Trump, following Jena Griswold of Colorado. However, she reversed that move in March after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Colorado’s objection.
But claims that she was arrested for her initial decision are baseless. Bellows has been seen in public after May 15, the date of her supposed arrest.
She appeared in a livestreamed interview May 17 with The Maine Monitor, a nonpartisan publication affiliated with the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. The nearly hour-long interview covered the election process in the state.
Emily Cook, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, told USA TODAY the Real Raw News story is “just fiction.”
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While Bellows hasn’t been arrested, she did face backlash for her initial decision. On Dec. 29, 2023, her home was swatted – an illegal practice that involves making a phony call for help to cause a large number of police officers to respond to the home.
Bellows wrote about the situation in an Instagram post the following day and noted that her address had also been publicized online.
Real Raw News is a serial spreader of misinformation that often publishes fabricated stories about “white hats” trying to undermine “the deep state” by arresting government officials. USA TODAY has previously debunked numerous other claims about the arrests of high-profile figures stemming from Real Raw News.
USA TODAY reached out to Real Raw News but did not immediately receive a response.
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Craig Joseph Ahlemeyer
STANDISH – Craig J. Ahlemeyer, 48 of Standish, passed away unexpectedly, Saturday, June 13, 2026.A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, June 27 th at Standish Congregational Church, 25 Oak Hill Road in Standish. A reception will follow.To see Craig’s full obituary, share a memory or leave the family an online condolence, please visit http://www.athutchins.com.
“Do you ever think we could find some woods to walk in?” my outdoorsy 12-year-old asks me, every now and again. As a kid growing up in New York City, Anton appreciates all the skate parks and bagel shops, but he also really craves nature, like in his bones.
So, when school got out, I offered to take him for a weekend in Maine, a place with not only woods but also lakes and rocks and periwinkles that come out of their shells when you hum. We were both really excited.
The first night, we were lucky enough to snag a room at Aragosta, a beautiful small hotel in Deer Isle that Alison had recommended.
The chef-owner, Devin Finigan, is famous for her seasonal tasting menus, but we focused on the breakfast that came with the room, including these Maine blueberry pancakes. I don’t even usually like pancakes and these blew my mind.
We also played a LOT of chess on our little travel board.
After breakfast, we set out to hike up Blue Hill Mountain.
Here’s the summit!
In the afternoon, we explored the charming fishing village of Stonington…
…then joined my friend Julie (of Rudy Jude fame) and her family for dinner at the Burnt Cove Boil.
Basically, a crab gets plonked down in front of you, followed by a corn on the cob, then a lobster, then a classic ice-cream sandwich. Julie and her husband Anthony taught us how to get all the meat out. (Their kids were already pros.)
Afterward, the four boys scrambled around on the rocks, while the adults chatted. It’s always such a treat to hang out with people who live in the place you’re visiting, don’t you think? Julie and Anthony described how they brought their recently hatched chicks into their home to keep them warm, and all the peeping was sooooo loud — and then a cricket got into the house and added to the noise and no one could find it and everyone was going nuts, haha. Very different from city life!
The next day, Anton and I stayed at the lovely Asticou Hotel near Acadia National Park.
We drove to a couple trailheads but they were PACKED — you had to stand in a long line, just to start the hike! Luckily, we found a quieter area and took a long walk around Jordan Pond, playing Would You Rather and Categories along the way. Do you have any favorite travel games?
Finally, we skimmed stones on our last afternoon before heading back to Brooklyn.
Epic travel buddy
Oh, Maine, what a magical place! Not pictured, of course: traffic, grumpy preteen moments, locking our keys in the rental car, etc., but all that’s to be expected.
Have you been to Maine? Do you live there? What parts do you love? Any pro tips? I’d love to hear. xoxo
P.S. Our Maine trip — and another amazing hotel — when the boys were much younger, and a Maine home with a bedroom looking over water.
Matt Dunlap won the Democratic primary in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District after three rounds of ranked-choice voting, the state’s Secretary of State’s office announced Friday.
Democrats are seeking to hang onto a seat in a district that President Trump won in the last three presidential elections. State Sen. Joe Baldacci led after the first two rounds of ranked–choice voting, but Dunlap overtook him after challengers Paige Loud and Jordan Wood were eliminated.
Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate, is retiring after four terms. His decision not to run for reelection was a blow to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House majority.
In the 2024 election, Golden was one of 13 Democrats to win a House race in a district also won by Mr. Trump. Golden declined to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has voted with Republicans on several issues, including measures to avert a shutdown and on reining in Mr. Trump’s war powers authority.
Dunlap, the state’s auditor, will face Republican Paul LePage in November’s general election. LePage is a former two-term governor who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. As of May 20, LePage had $1.2 million cash on hand while Dunlap had less than $100,000, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Dunlap’s win marks a defeat for House Democrats’ campaign arm. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsed Joe Baldacci, a state senator, saying he “has never lost an election and has consistently overperformed Democrats up and down the ballot, including a 3-point overperformance of the presidential ticket in 2024.”
Baldacci was the runner–up, the Maine Secretary of State’s office said. The results were announced 10 days after voters went to the polls due to the ranked-choice tabulations.
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