Latest news with #Bellows
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here is the official letter Secretary Bellows sent Trump's DOJ rejecting request for voter data
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows speaks with counsel representing the Trump campaign and challengers to his ballot eligibility during a December 15, 2023, hearing in Augusta. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows officially responded to the U.S. Department of Justice's request for sweeping voter data, questioning the federal agency's intentions and asking that the request be withdrawn. The letter, sent Friday, comes after Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2026, told Maine Morning Star last month that she planned to tell the DOJ it does not have the right to such information. In the letter addressed to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates, Bellows wrote that she has 'grave concerns about the seemingly overbroad scope of the Department of Justice's information and records requests, which do not appear to be correlated with legitimate investigatory needs.' The DOJ declined to answer Maine Morning Star's request for comment. The DOJ is asking for voter information from all 50 states, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State. Maine Morning Star's partner outlets have been following these probes in at least nine other states so far. Trump administration requested voter data. Secretary Bellows says, 'Go jump in the Gulf of Maine' Bellows requested that the DOJ provide an explanation of why it made such requests in Maine, which included the statewide voter registration list, names of officials who handle the list's maintenance and the number of ineligible voters the state identified due to noncitizenship, among other information about the state's election processes. 'The United States Constitution entrusted the states, not the federal government, with responsibility for administering elections, and that's a critically important check and balance on potential federal abuse of power,' Bellows shared in a statement on Monday. 'The Department of Justice doesn't get to know everything about you just because they want to, and I will do everything in my power to protect the privacy and security of Maine voters.' Bellows received the detailed request from the the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ on July 24, following a less expansive inquiry from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys on July 10 for a phone call with Bellows to discuss a 'potential information-sharing agreement' to provide the DOJ with information on registered voters in Maine. In her response on Friday, Bellows also rejected the premise of some of the DOJ's requests, including questioning the data provided for the election administration and voting survey conducted by the Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency of the U.S. government created by Congress in 2002 to aid the states in conducting safe and secure elections. For example, the July 24 request noted that Maine's survey response showed that there were nearly as many registered voters listed as active as the citizen voting age population in Maine in 2024, with a registration rate of 92.4%. The letter went on to request further details about the state's response, such as information about the actions Maine is taking to ensure that ineligible voters are being removed and a list of all duplicate registrants the state has removed. 'Mainers should be extremely proud that our state is a national leader in voter registration and voter turnout,' Bellows said in a statement Monday. 'Every eligible voter in Maine has the right to vote and should be encouraged to do so. Why the Department of Justice would question Maine's success is beyond me and smacks of federal interference in our elections.' Read the full letter: Maine Secretary of State response to DOJ_08082025 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration requested voter data. Secretary Bellows says, ‘Go jump in the Gulf of Maine'
Shenna Bellows waits outside the Maine House of Representatives chamber before legislators elected her to serve another term as Secretary of State. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star) The U.S. Department of Justice asked Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to provide access to the state's voter registration list and other sweeping election data. Bellows told Maine Morning Star she will respond in the next few days by telling the DOJ that it does not have the right to such information. 'The federal government has overstepped its bounds,' Bellows said. 'We will be denying their request for the citizen voter information of every Mainer.' Bellows said, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State, the DOJ is asking for voter information from all 50 states. Maine Morning Star's partner outlets have been following these probes in at least nine other states so far. 'Why on Earth does the Department of Justice need the voter information from all 50 states?' Bellows said. 'If Congress thought it was appropriate that there be a national voter file, Congress could have authorized the Department of Justice to do that, but they have not.' The latest request in Maine follows a less expansive inquiry earlier this month. In a July 10 email, Scott Laragy, principal deputy director in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, requested a phone call with Bellows to discuss a 'potential information-sharing agreement' to provide the DOJ with information on registered voters in Maine who are ineligible to vote or 'may otherwise have engaged in unlawful conduct relevant to the election process.' The Department of the Secretary of State sent a response acknowledging receipt of the email that same day. Then, on July 24, the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ sent a vastly more detailed request for specific data, including the statewide voter registration list, names of officials who handle the list's maintenance and the number of ineligible voters the state identified due to noncitizenship, among other information about the state's election processes. 'We don't know why they're doing this, whether it is to change the subject away from topics like the Epstein files, or whether it is to undermine voter confidence in our strong election systems,' said Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2026. But it doesn't matter why, she said, it violates the U.S. Constitution, which puts states in charge of elections. The DOJ declined to answer Maine Morning Star's requests for comment on the emails regarding why the administration is seeking the information and how it intends to use it. DOJLetter During Trump's first term, Bellows' predecessor Matt Dunlap denied Trump's voter fraud commission access to the state voter file, which Bellows said was the correct move. Dunlap served on the panel and after it was disbanded said it was set up to validate Trump's voter fraud claims. He did not respond to requests for comment for this story. 'The secretary of state at the time of the state of Mississippi, Delbert Hosemann [a Republican], told the DOJ to go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,' Bellows added. 'My answer to the DOJ is, 'Go jump in the Gulf of Maine.'' While Bellows intends to tell the DOJ they have no right to the information, it is due within 14 days of receipt, according to the letter which came from the division's Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Gates and Acting Chief of the Voting Section Maureen Riordan. The requests are for data specifically from November 2022 through the receipt of the letter. One of the demands is the number of registered voters identified as ineligible to vote in Maine for that time period specifically because of the following reasons: 'non-citizen,' 'adjudicated incompetent,' and 'felony conviction.' Maine is one of two states that have no restrictions on eligibility to vote based on criminal convictions. For each of these categories, the DOJ also requested the individual's registration information on the statewide voter registration list, including their vote history. The requests in other states have ranged in scope. Other states received 'information-sharing agreement' inquiries, including nearby Rhode Island. Meanwhile, at least nine states have received requests from the DOJ for more detailed voter information like the latest in Maine, such as turning over full voter registration lists and each state's process for flagging noncitizen applicants. These nine states include Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Colorado — the latter being the most sweeping publicly known request. The DOJ is demanding Colorado turn over all records related to the 2024 election, a massive trove of documents that could include ballots and even voting equipment. These requests have raised fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information. Jen Lancaster, communications director for Democracy Maine, a collaboration between nonpartisan organizations working to make government more equitable by improving elections, protecting and engaging voters, described the probes as 'a nefarious data grab' that is likely intended to target groups that have already been subject to other data probes by the Trump administration, such as immigrants. 'We hope that our election officials, if it came down to being pushed to share that sensitive data, we would hope that they resist that,' Lancaster said. The latest request of Maine cites state data provided for the election administration and voting survey conducted by the Election Assistance Commission, an independent agency of the U.S. government created by Congress in 2002 to aid the states in conducting safe and secure elections. For example, the letter noted that Maine's survey response showed that there were nearly as many registered voters listed as active as the citizen voting age population in Maine in 2024, with a registration rate of 92.4%. The letter went on to request further details about the state's response, such as information about the actions Maine is taking to ensure that ineligible voters are being removed and a list of all duplicate registrants the state has removed. Secretary of State finds dual voting accusations from Maine GOP to be false 'Again, the Trump administration and the DOJ are blurring the lines and overstepping their bounds,' Bellows said in response to these asks. '… We are proud of our high voter registration rates. I work hard on school campuses, in community outreach events, to promote voter registration.' Bellows added, 'The nature of these questions suggest that the DOJ is more interested in keeping people that they don't like from voting than promoting voter registration and participation.' The DOJ requests for Maine voter data come after the state GOP accused multiple Maine citizens of voting twice in the same election, claims that Bellows determined to be false earlier this month. The state party, along with the help of the Republican National Committee, found more than 600 voters who registered to vote twice and more than 50 who voted twice in the same election, using a state voter file provided by the Secretary of State, according to details shared in a June 26 Facebook post. According to Bellows' office, of the 51 names in question, 11 were different people with the same name and another 19 were erroneously recorded by their local municipality as having voted twice but in fact had not. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Secretary of State finds dual voting accusations from Maine GOP to be false
A voter walks by a ballot box outside Portland City Hall on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Lauren McCauley/ Maine Morning Star) After investigating the recent accusation of multiple Maine citizens voting twice in the same election, the Secretary of State's office has said it found the claims to be false. In a letter to the chair of the Maine Republican Party, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the Elections Division in her office found no incidents of dual voting among the list of 51 names accused by the party of voting twice in the same election. The investigation from Bellows' office comes after the Maine GOP released the results of an election integrity investigation it conducted this year that focused on voters who were registered to vote twice. The state party, along with the help of the RNC, found more than 600 voters who registered to vote twice and more than 50 who voted twice in the same election, using an official state voter file provided by the Secretary of State, according to details shared in a June 26 Facebook post. Of the 51 names in question, 11 were different people with the same name and another 19 were erroneously recorded by their local municipality as having voted twice but in fact had not, according to a news release from Bellows' office Wednesday morning. The rest of the voters' records needed minor corrections or other administrative action, but had no record of dual voting. For example, there was an individual accused who voted in the municipal and state elections in June 2024, which are technically separate elections even when held on the same day. Bellows said anyone with concerns or evidence of improper voting should bring those to the Department of Secretary of State to investigate in accordance with the Constitution. She went on to say that 'it's not only unfair to the individuals wrongly accused but also an insult to the hardworking state and local election officials to make false accusations of criminal activity.' The Maine GOP did not respond to a request for comment on Bellows' letter as of mid-Wednesday. The June accusations came less than a year after accusations of non-citizen voting across the country from Republican lawmakers and candidates before the November 2024 election. State lawmakers in Maine joined the chorus after a conservative news outlet published an article alleging six noncitizens are registered to vote in Maine by comparing voter rolls against self-reported status on medical records, which the website refused to turn over to the state's constitutional officers. Bellows said at the time that she was committed to investigating the potential violations, but worried that the largely unsubstantiated claims will be used to sow doubt in the upcoming election results. Election officials in Maine inspect voter rolls after every election to identify duplicates or any potential wrongdoings, the release said. After the 2020 election, two individuals were identified during that process as having voted twice and were prosecuted by the Maine Office of Attorney General. Routine election work also includes the review of duplicate registrations, which are not uncommon, especially after someone moves to a new municipality. The Secretary of State provides an annual report to the Maine Legislature outlining the cancellation of duplicates and other voter list maintenance. The 2024 report was delivered to the Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee in January. It indicated that nearly 1,200 duplicate records were removed from the statewide voter registration database. Duplicate records are resolved by Elections Division staff at the Secretary of State's office — rather than municipal clerks who can only access their towns records — to ensure uniformity across the state, the release said. 'We are proud of Maine's safe, free, and secure elections, and I applaud the detailed work that Maine election officials do to ensure the integrity of our voter rolls and protect Maine elections,' Bellow said in the letter. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Solve the daily Crossword
Boston Globe
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Some Mainers think their new license plates come with a one-finger salute
It took Alison Soule a nanosecond to see it. 'Oh, it's a middle finger,' Soule, 46, said when she looked closely at the new plates she'd put on her SUV two weeks earlier. Advertisement Soule, a teacher and restaurant worker who lives in North Yarmouth, said getting flipped off by a treetop doesn't bother her. 'It's actually funny,' she said. 'If it was done intentionally, that's disappointing. If it was accidental, it's more comical.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Was it intentional? Or is the image like a Rorschach test inkblot, where we see what we want to see? It's the latter, says the artist who designed the plate. Mary Catus was working in the Maine Secretary of State's office in 2023 when it was charged with coming up with a design for the new plate, which by Advertisement Secretary of State Shenna Bellows suggested using it for the new plate after the legislature's transportation committee couldn't agree on a design. Bellows took Catus's watercolor to committee members, and they loved it. Catus created a new version on her iPad and donated it to the state. 'Her design was vibrant and lifelike,' Bellows said. 'It was the perfect pine tree plate for the Pine Tree State.' Catus has seen the chatter about the middle finger at the top of her tree and finds it amusing. 'I have been scrolling through Reddit, and I thought that was hilarious,' said Catus, who is now the press secretary in the Maine Senate president's office. 'There are no Easter eggs in this design. There was no intention behind that – definitely not my brand.' An upraised finger? That's what pine tree boughs look like. 'Anyone who suggests it's anything other than a pine tree doesn't know pine trees,' Bellows said. Even so, once you see the Rachel Soucy saw it when she was waiting at a red light behind a car with the new plate. 'I'm looking at the plate and looking at the plate, and I started chuckling,' said Soucy, 55, a help desk specialist who lives in Bangor. 'I couldn't believe it. Then people started posting pictures online. It gave me the opportunity to enlarge the image, and sure enough.' Mary Catus, the artist behind the tree, has seen the chatter about the middle finger and finds it amusing. "Definitely not my brand." Steve Greenlee Pictures and chatter about the plate's supposed one-finger salute are all over social media. Advertisement Gary Craig, 42, posted on Reddit after hearing about the finger in a family text chain. He said his brother-in-law runs an automotive repair shop and started seeing it. Craig said he's surprised the state didn't notice it before approving the design. 'You don't have anyone in your approval process who is slightly jaded like me and says, 'Wait a second, guys. We have a problem'?' said Craig, a chemical and biomedical engineer in Old Town. In fact, there has been a problem with the new plates, but it's not with the tree. The spacing between characters on 3,600 plates that have been printed is too small to be read by toll scanners, so new ones are being issued to those vehicle owners. Tracy Christensen of Tampa, Fla., was driving a Toyota HEV rental with the new plates in Freeport last week. She hadn't looked at the tree until a reporter asked her to take a peek. Then she saw it immediately. 'It looks like it's giving the finger,' Christensen, 52, who is an operations manager for a nonprofit, said with a laugh. Same with Bob Masciarelli, a 67-year-old retiree parking his Jeep at a supermarket in Yarmouth. 'Oh!' he said as soon as he bent down for a look. It's quite obviously a coincidence, like spotting an image of Jesus on a potato chip, and it's too soon to tell whether the plates could put a dent in Mainers' reputation as New England's most courteous drivers. What is apparent to many motorists is that the state may have unintentionally replaced the chickadee with a different sort of bird. Steve Greenlee is a journalism professor at Boston University. Advertisement
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine Voter ID supporters challenge state's ballot language
May 12—A group campaigning to require a photo identification when voting and tighten absentee ballot access is suing the Secretary of State's office over the wording of a statewide referendum headed for the fall ballot. Supporters say the official wording misrepresents the proposal and "buries its core intent behind a string of technical and inflammatory clauses." Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and other opponents of the referendum have criticized advocates for promoting the measure only as a voter ID mandate when the proposal would also make it harder to vote absentee and make other changes to elections laws that officials say would be difficult and expensive to implement. Bellows released the final wording of the ballot question last week: "Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?" The Voter ID for ME campaign said the question "misrepresents the proposal and buries its core intent behind a string of technical and inflammatory clauses" and "fails to meet the constitutional and statutory standards of clarity, accuracy, and impartiality." "Maine voters deserve a clear, honest question — not a partisan editorial from an official who's already made her opposition clear in the press and in legislative testimony," campaign manager Alex Titcomb said in a written statement. Bellows could not be immediately reached for a response to the challenge in Cumberland County Superior Court. Bellows has been the target of criticism of Republicans after she tried to exclude Donald Trump from Maine's 2024 ballot citing the anti-insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. She reversed course after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a similar case that state officials don't have the power to exclude a nominee from the presidential ballot. Bellows came under renewed scrutiny last month, when she formally announced that she was running in the Democratic primary for governor. Republicans called on Bellows to resign as the state's top election official, but she refused, citing past precedent. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, who is helping lead the campaign for voter ID, accused Bellows of "misusing her power to mislead the public." "It's not just dishonest — it's undemocratic," Libby said in a written statement. The 11-page proposal, LD 1149,would require a photo ID at the polls or when a voter returns an absentee ballot, though it includes a religious exemption for those who object to being photographed. Acceptable IDs would include state driver's license or ID cards, a military ID, passport or a concealed weapons permit. It would not include student IDs. The proposal would also end the current practice of allowing absentee ballots to be requested by phone and by immediate family members, and would end a program that allows seniors and people with disabilities to receive absentee ballots for every election without making a special request each time. Additionally, the bill would prohibit municipalities such as Portland and Orono from having more than one drop box to collect absentee ballots. And it would require municipalities to have "a bipartisan team of election officials" to collect those ballots, rather than assigning the task to municipal clerks. The campaign to pass the measure has been fueled by a $500,000 donation from a national group, the Republican State Leadership Committee. The proposal drew strong opposition, including from Bellows and local elections officials, during a public hearing earlier this month. Opponents argued that Maine's elections are already secure and that the new requirements would only make it more difficult for some people to vote, including elderly residents, people with disabilities, people without reliable transportation, busy parents and shift-workers. They included AARP, the Maine Town and City Clerks Association, the Maine State Nurses Association, the Maine Education Association and the Maine Women's Lobby. Those who spoke in favor, mostly the Republican sponsors of the bills, argued they are commonsense reforms to increase confidence in elections. Libby noted that more than 171,000 voters signed the petition to place the question on the ballot, but opponents at the public hearing accused signature gatherers of only highlighting the proposal to show voter ID when casting a ballot, when the bill contained other sweeping reforms. "It is important that the legislators and the voters understand the comprehensive nature of the initiative that's before you," Bellows said at the May 2 hearing. This story will be updated. Copy the Story Link
