Illegal voting charges against American Samoans in Whittier highlight unique citizenship status

Yahoo

11-04-2025

Apr. 10—State prosecutors have charged 10 Whittier residents from American Samoa accused of illegally voting in local and state elections with perjury and voter misconduct — cases highlighting the unique citizenship status of American Samoans, and a national effort to reevaluate it.
In indictments filed April 4, the state of Alaska charged the Whittier residents — all members of an extended family — with voting illegally in multiple recent elections, saying that because they were born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, they are not American citizens but instead are nationals, and do not have the right to vote. The state contends the defendants misrepresented themselves as U.S. citizens on voting paperwork.
People born in all other U.S. territories, including Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas, receive American citizenship by birth, but those born in American Samoa are considered U.S. nationals.
The recent cases put Alaska on the forefront of a national debate about the citizenship status of American Samoans.
"This is, to our knowledge, the first time any state has prosecuted American Samoans for any crime based really solely on their place of birth," said Neil Weare, an attorney and co-founder of Right to Democracy, an organization that advocates for reform to laws related to the U.S. territories and is involved in the cases.
None of the 10 people charged were available for comment this week. All are due to be arraigned in May.
Right to Democracy contends that because American Samoans are born on U.S. soil, under the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, they have a constitutional right to be recognized as citizens.
The prosecutions are only about upholding the current law, said John Skidmore, the Alaska Department of Law criminal division chief.
"If people don't like the laws and think they should be changed, there's a process for doing that," he said.
The charges are not the first time the state has prosecuted members of the family for voting-related crimes.
In 2023, the state filed charges against a Whittier woman, Tupe Smith, who ran for school board in the community and won. Election officials found Smith was born in American Samoa and filed voter misconduct charges against her, saying she claimed to be a U.S. citizen when she was not.
Smith was arrested in front of her children, Weare said. She was booked at the Anchorage jail before posting bail, according to court records. Her case remains unresolved.
Then, last September, a group of Alaska State Troopers descended on the tiny Prince William Sound town, interviewing some members of an American Samoan family related to Smith.
"We were targeted," Smith's husband, Michael Pese, told Alaska's News Source at the time. Pese was among the 10 people charged this month with voter misconduct.
It was a stunning display of force for such an investigation, said Mara Kimmel, the director of the ACLU of Alaska, which has been monitoring the case.
The investigation and prosecution were the result of a complaint, Skidmore said. State agencies investigate reports of voter fraud or misconduct every election cycle, he said.
"We probably get a handful per year," Skidmore said. "It's a small number that we actually find evidence that people violated criminal law."
Skidmore said that the state was simply upholding election integrity.
"When somebody has violated the law, that's what we're concerned with," he said. "We don't look at ethnicity, we don't look at race, we don't look at political background. None of that stuff matters to us. What matters is that the laws in place are followed."
The cases are important for American Samoans in Alaska, said Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, the executive director of Pacific Community of Alaska. American Samoa has been under the control of the United States for 125 years, and American Samoans have among the highest rates of service to the military, and yet are not citizens, Toleafoa said.
"You pay allegiance to a country that does not see you as equal," Toleafoa said.
The majority of Samoans over about 20 years old in Alaska are likely from American Samoa and therefore U.S. nationals, said Toleafoa. According to 2020 U.S. census data, about 2.5% of Alaska's overall population is Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian.
Much confusion has surrounded the voting status of American Samoans in Alaska for years, Toleafoa said: People born in American Samoa are eligible for many benefits, including the Permanent Fund dividend, which leads to automatic voter registration, Toleafoa said. American Samoans can also receive U.S. passports. And some say they had been advised they could vote in local elections, but not national elections.
The state should have conducted an education campaign, said Weare.
"There's a lot of reason people are confused, but rather than conduct an education campaign to address the confusion, they're arresting people in their homes ... and seeking, with these new filings, up to 10 years in jail," he said.