A Maine prosecutor on Thursday dismissed a case against a state representative who was accused of campaigning illegally at the polls.
District Attorney Natasha Irving said her decision was based on new evidence provided by an attorney for Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, that led Irving to believe Milliken was acting within state law.
Milliken, who is in her second term representing her hometown and other coastal Hancock County communities, was accused of violating a Maine law that prohibits attempting to influence another person’s decision on a candidate or issue on the ballot within 250 feet of a polling place on Election Day.
The criminal complaint, filed on Sept. 5, alleged that she illegally campaigned inside and around the Blue Hill town office on April 4.
However, Irving said on Thursday that the evidence in the original report to the Sheriff’s Office included witnesses who did not hear Milliken make unlawful statements, along with three witnesses who indicated that Milliken’s statements did violate the law.
Additionally, Milliken produced evidence that she sent text messages to the secretary of state asking if the statements she made were in line with the law, Irving said, and the secretary of state replied that they were.
“Many will react to this news with the belief that the charges were politically motivated,” said Irving, who is a Democrat. She added that she doubts she could say anything to convince someone otherwise but said “party affiliation and political beliefs have absolutely no bearing on innocence or guilt.”
The case was first reported by The Maine Wire, a media outlet run by the conservative Maine Policy Institute, who cited an anonymous source claiming the Blue Hill town clerk warned Milliken several times to stop pressuring voters inside the town office.
Milliken, responding through her attorney, has “strongly” denied that she broke the law.
The 250-foot rule is rarely charged as a crime in Maine, although violations are a common complaint during elections here. Enforcement is most often left to local election officials who enforce the law simply by telling people to move away from the polling place.