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Republican candidate for governor Bobby Charles recently said that he was going to contact his “friend” Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, and ask for ICE and marshals to be at our voting booths to prevent “the illegals” from voting.
Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 592, prohibits stationing “troops or armed men” at the polls, except when necessary “to repel armed enemies of the U.S.” With the possible exception of masked and armed ICE agents, I am not aware of the threat of armed enemies of the U.S. likely to be present at Maine polls on election day. We can hope that Homan knows federal law better than Charles and will ignore this cheap political tactic.
Local and state Maine officials know how to run a secure election. They have been doing so for decades without federal interference.
There has never been a conviction in Maine of a non-citizen voting. Bobby Charles is proposing to solve a problem that does not exist.
If armed ICE agents do appear at the polls on election day, it will be intimidating to voters. Intimidation of voters is also a violation of federal law.
Additionally, the presence of ICE agents would sow chaos in conducting our elections, which is perhaps Charles’ real reason for requesting ICE agents to be at the polls. If he loses the election, he can then claim he really won, and it was election chaos and fraud that produced a different result. This would be consistent with the Trump playbook.
William A. Lee III
Waterville