Maine’s Secretary of State says accusations that 51 Maine citizens voted twice in the same election were false.
In a statement on Wednesday, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the Elections Division found that 11 of the names provided by the Maine GOP were those of different people with similar identifying information, with the remaining apparent duplicates resulting from clerical errors.
In a statement, Bellows said:
“Anyone with concerns or evidence of improper voting should bring those to the appropriate authorities at the Department of Secretary of State, and we will investigate appropriately as we have always done in accordance with our oath to the Constitution. 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.”
In June, the Maine GOP called for a state and federal investigation into the discrepancies and said the Secretary of State had denied local clerks’ access to voter files.
In a response to Bellows’ statement on Wednesday, the Maine GOP said they had not accused voters of voting twice but wanted to draw attention to errors in the state’s voter records:
“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.
Bellows, a Democrat, announced her run for governor in March.