Migrants have been illegally voting in Maine's elections since 2016: report

Migrants have been voting in Maine's elections since 2016, and in the 2024 election, as many as 40 percent of noncitizens living in Maine, including illegal immigrants, may have cast ballots or have ballots cast in their name, according to an investigation by the Maine Wire.

The Maine Wire, which viewed records from MaineCare and voter data from the Central Voter Registration (CVR) system that is maintained by the state’s Secretary of State, reported that of the 25 noncitizens enrolled in MaineCare, ten were registered to vote. 

Under MaineCare’s records "Alien Status" is denoted by "1-US Citizen," which includes natural-born or naturalized citizens, "2-Legal Alien," which includes Green Card holders, Temporary Protected Status holders, and other legal immigrant designations, and "3-Other," which are unapproved asylum applicants on parole, illegal immigrants, or others who are not legally authorized to be in the US. 

Those in the second and third categories are ineligible to register to vote or cast a ballot. The 10 individuals noted by the outlet fell under these two categories, and eight of them have cast votes in their names since 2016. 

In the state of Maine, it is illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or cast a ballot, and the state also prohibits people assist in voter registration or ballot casting if they know the person they’re helping is a noncitizen ineligible to vote. Noncitizens also face federal penalties for the act. 

The outlet noted that the CVR data has not been updated for the presidential election that took place in 2024, but at least one illegal alien registered to vote as a Democrat and cast a ballot in the 2024 Democratic primary. The outlet added, "The full extent to which noncitizens are registering to vote and actually voting in Maine elections is unknowable without broader access to datasets maintained by state and federal government agencies."

The 2022 US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) stated that there were 20,137 noncitizens over the age of 18 living in Maine at the time. 7,659 of them lived in Maine’s northern Second Congressional District, while 12,478 lived in Maine’s southern First Congressional District.