Elections officials fight misinformation about Maine’s voting security

Maine officers anticipate a modest turnout on June 14 for the state’s main elections, although they’re on heightened alert for threats towards ballot staff amid a rising cloud of misinformation concerning the safety of Maine’s elections.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows stated there are layers of protections constructed into Maine’s election methods to make sure the accuracy of its depend, right down to the person voter. Because the state’s high election official, she is worried by claims made regionally and nationally that would erode public belief in Maine’s historical past of holding “free, honest and safe elections,” Bellows stated.

“Sadly, one of many issues that now we have noticed because the 2020 election is deliberate disinformation and misinformation being unfold about elections nationally, together with right here in our state, designed to undermine voter confidence,” Bellows stated. “What’s actually tragic is disinformation and mal-information are fancy phrases for lies.”

There isn’t any proof of widespread voter fraud in Maine or elsewhere regardless of repeated claims by former President Donald Trump and Republican Celebration members that it occurred in the course of the 2020 presidential election.

Claims of voter fraud or election safety issues have been utilized by each main political events all through historical past, however at present a lot of the claims are coming from Republicans, stated Mark Brewer, the College of Maine interim chair of the Division of Political Science.

“The Republican base, which nonetheless adamantly helps Trump, eats that stuff up they usually imagine it. So for those who’re a Republican operating for workplace in 2022 and also you wish to enchantment to the bottom of your occasion and these adamant Trump supporters, you must pay lip service to fraud,” Brewer stated.

But claims that query the integrity of elections could be “extremely damaging” to the general public’s belief in democracy, Brewer stated. On the identical time, some politicians could attempt to faucet into these fears as a result of it energizes their voters and will get them to solid ballots, he stated.

An estimated 10 to twenty p.c of voters are anticipated to solid main ballots, Bellows stated.

Maine has protections in its election course of to make sure that solely eligible folks vote and solely solid one poll.

Chief amongst these protections is Maine’s use of paper ballots marked by the voter and never a machine, Bellows stated. Previous to an election, the state assessments the reminiscence gadgets programmed to learn ballots to make sure the machines used to depend votes – often known as tabulators – produce the identical outcomes as a hand-count. Clerks repeat these assessments on native machines. Tabulators usually are not linked to the web.

Native nonpartisan clerks then report every individual’s voting historical past within the days following every election by way of the state’s central voter registration system. This enables state election officers to confirm that the entire variety of ballots solid and variety of voters match. It additionally lets election overseers verify that voters didn’t solid a number of ballots both by voting absentee and once more in-person, or voting at a number of polling places.

The one instances of alleged voter fraud charged by the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace after the 2020 election had been towards two College of Maine college students. One case remains to be pending towards a girl who allegedly voted twice. Two felony costs towards one other girl had been dismissed in November 2021 after she accomplished 200 hours of neighborhood service and wrote an apology letter to a voter she falsely submitted an absentee poll for, in keeping with Danna Hayes, a spokeswoman for the AG’s workplace.

“What the info reveals is that almost all of individuals are trustworthy, and that there are checks and balances at each step of the method to make sure solely people who find themselves duly registered in a municipality are casting a poll and taking part in an election. Individuals who attempt to cheat by voting twice are caught and are prosecuted totally beneath the legislation,” Bellows stated.

Partisan ballot watchers are additionally allowed to look at inside polling places on election days.

The Republican Nationwide Committee has employed Election Integrity administrators in 19 states, together with Maine, to do ballot employee coaching. Throughout a latest digital coaching occasion, the Maine election integrity director, Sharon Bemis, reviewed the right way to problem a voter and report irregularities – from late begin instances to malfunctioning tabulators – in actual time with movies and images by way of its “shield the vote” on-line type.

“To ensure that the democratic course of to work, People will need to have confidence that our elections are free, honest and clear,” stated Maine Republican Nationwide Committee spokesman Andrew Mahaleris. “In Maine and throughout the nation, the RNC is dedicated to defending these rules.”

Voters don’t want to point out ID at their polling location, which has been criticized as a attainable election safety downside. However Bellows says it’s not a menace as a result of there’s a complete voter registration course of.

To seem on a voter checklist at a polling location, folks should first show their id, citizenship and residency to register to vote, which is why the state is assured that non-citizens usually are not voting and individuals are not being bused in from different states to vote, Bellows stated.

Paul LePage, the previous governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate, has lobbed unfounded accusations that voters had been bused in from Massachusetts to vote in state elections in 2009.

“When you’re going to make claims like that, in my opinion, it is advisable to have some proof to help them. If these issues are actually taking place that’s clearly an enormous downside, however for those who’re going to make these claims you greatest have some proof. To date, until I’ve missed it, the previous governor has produced zero proof,” stated Brewer, the political scientist.

LePage helps a “frequent sense” voter ID legislation, stated Brent Littlefield, senior political adviser for the marketing campaign. He pointed to testimony Bellows made to the state Legislature in April 2021 that 162,266 energetic Maine voters didn’t have an identical driver’s license or state ID document.

“It solely is sensible to most voters that now we have an ID once you vote,” Littlefield stated.

In response, Emily Prepare dinner, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Workplace, stated a few of these 162,266 voters truly could have ID. Prepare dinner stated the determine was an estimate produced to assist legislative workers decide the potential price of a proposed invoice.

When Maine applied its first central voter registration system in 2007, it transformed lists saved on the native stage right into a statewide system. A few of these lists didn’t embody driver’s license numbers although voters had demonstrated proof of id one other manner. The state didn’t require voters to provide ID to stay a registered voter, Prepare dinner stated.

Skepticism about your authorities is a part of a wholesome democracy, however it’s corrosive when it’s used to undermine methods and establishments, stated Amy Fried, co-author of the e book “At Conflict with Authorities: How Conservatives Weaponized Mistrust from Goldwater to Trump,” and a professor of political science on the College of Maine.

Fried co-authored a paper in October 2020 predicting doubtless impacts if Trump endured in “delegitimizing the election,” and accurately foresaw that “preliminary vote counts would favor Trump however would develop into more and more pro-Biden as mailed ballots are counted,” and that Trump would use that as a motive to say the election “was being rigged or stolen.” In addition they accurately predicted that, “there’s potential for not solely protracted authorized challenges, but additionally social disruption” after the election and earlier than the inauguration – which manifested in the course of the riot on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In states aside from Maine, there are indicators of some Republicans once more making an attempt to form public opinion to reject election outcomes due to “fraud,” Fried stated. It’s not clear that this all the time advantages the candidate making the declare and should even suppress turnout.

Nonetheless, the Maine Secretary of State’s Workplace is “on excessive alert” for violent threats and ballot employee security, Bellows stated. The workplace is involved with legislation enforcement to make sure they will intervene if there are issues on the polls, she stated.

“It’s one thing that we’re involved about due to developments throughout the nation,” stated Bellows, who referenced reporting by the information company Reuters that documented greater than 900 “threatening and hostile” messages despatched to election directors or workers in 17 states in the course of the 2020 election.

“One clerk was sharing with me, on the polls, folks used to come back with pies and treats and hugs. And undoubtedly for some clerks it’s a really completely different atmosphere,” Bellows stated.

Gov. Janet Mills signed a legislation handed by the Legislature this yr that improves de-escalation coaching for clerks and makes it a Class D misdemeanor to harass ballot staff. Heightened public rigidity from latest elections has made some Maine clerks go away their jobs, and a number of other cities and cities to rent clerks forward of the first election, The Maine Monitor reported.

The lack of skilled election staff keen to workers the polls will probably be an issue, Brewer stated.

Brewer famous that understaffed municipal clerk workplaces and the way that impacts the administration of the state’s elections is a narrative the general public must be watching. Outcomes may take longer to be reported. New or inexperienced election staff could make harmless errors or oversights.

“Each time there’s a mistake that occurs or a delay, that would very effectively, and I believe would, reinforce beliefs amongst those who already suppose there’s one thing funky occurring,” Brewer stated.

This story was initially printed by The Maine Monitor. The Maine Monitor is an area journalism product printed by The Maine Heart for Public Curiosity Reporting, a nonpartisan and nonprofit civic information group.

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