The Maine Republican Party’s accusations of voter fraud in the 2024 election aren’t true.
That’s according to Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ review of more than 600 duplicate voter records that the Maine GOP flagged as “concerning” last month.
“We are pleased to confirm that there were zero incidents of dual voting in the list of names provided to us. Our investigation cleared all voters of any wrongdoing and confirmed the integrity of our elections,” Bellows said in a Wednesday letter to Jim Deyermond, the party’s chair, detailing her findings.
Later on Wednesday, the Maine GOP called the results a “HUGE victory not only for Republicans, but for every Maine resident.”
“We tackled this issue because Maine voters deserve to have confidence in their elections. Our efforts have led Secretary Bellows to clean up the records and fulfill her duty as Secretary of State,” the party said in a statement.
On June 26, the Maine GOP put out a press release saying its investigation found more than 600 duplicate voter records, including more than 50 voters that it alleged cast multiple ballots.
“This is a major, major concern,” Deyermond said at the time. “We take election integrity very seriously and this must not be allowed to stand.”
The Maine GOP then called on the federal government to launch an investigation.
Bellows chastised the Maine GOP for not contacting her office beforehand with its concerns, but rather had a reporter provide a copy of the results of the party’s investigation to her.
In reviewing the Maine GOP’s findings, Bellows noted that 11 cases of alleged voter fraud turned out to be two different voters who had the same name. The other 40 cases turned out to stem from erroneous records but not evidence of someone voting more than once. Those records have been corrected.
Then she wrote that the other duplicate records flagged in the Maine GOP’s investigation included two that weren’t the same person and 126 that her office had already corrected, while 423 required further correction.
“Appropriate and ongoing voter list maintenance is part of the routine work of election administrators on an ongoing basis,” Bellows wrote.
For example, Bellows said her office submits an annual report to the Legislature about ongoing efforts to maintain accurate voter lists, including correcting duplicate records, of which there were 1,191 last year.
She wrote that these duplicates can happen when a voter doesn’t let the local clerk know that they are moving to a new town or city.
“We recognize that you may have been unaware of the level of detail that goes into voter list maintenance by the nonpartisan staff of the Elections Division, and we would be happy to educate you and members of your organization about the checks and balances in our process,” she wrote.
Bellows is running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for next year’s gubernatorial election.