Maine GOP Governor Nominee Wants ICE Agents at Polling Places

Maine's Republican nominee for governor, Bobby Charles, has said he would ask a top federal official to deploy immigration agents and U.S. Marshals to polling places in the state ahead of the November midterm elections.

At an August 20 event in Arundel, Charles told members of a Maine Young Republicans chapter that he would appeal to Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to have federal agents stationed at voting booths in the weeks before Election Day. Audio of the remarks was first reported by the Bangor Daily News.

"Here's my secret," Charles said. "I have a friend named Tom Homan. Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom's an awesome guy."

He added: "I'm going to ask Tom, I'm going to actually — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I'm going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths."

On Wednesday, Charles clarified his comments, saying state and local election authorities should maintain open communication with federal agencies to "prevent violence at a voting place, in order to prevent intimidation at a voting place and in order to prevent illegality at a voting place." He said his point was that Maine authorities should do everything legally possible to prevent illegal voting.

"Everybody who is legally entitled to vote should be free from any intimidation and should be able to vote," he said in a statement. "Anybody who is not legally entitled to vote should not be voting."

The remarks come as President Donald Trump continues to question the security of U.S. elections and take unprecedented steps to intervene in election administration. The Constitution grants states, and sometimes Congress, the authority to set election rules but gives no such power to the president.

A central part of Trump's attacks has been to claim widespread fraud through voting by noncitizens. However, those claims are vastly overstated — voting by noncitizens is exceptionally rare and is punishable as a felony, with deportation as a potential penalty.

Trump has pushed Congress to pass a bill requiring voters to show documentary proof of citizenship and signed an executive order directing the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to those on an approved list of verified voters.

When reached for comment, the Department of Homeland Security did not address whether officials had held or planned conversations with political campaigns about election security. DHS officials have previously said they do not plan to send ICE agents to polling places.

"Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders," a Homeland Security spokesperson said.

Democratic state officials have expressed concern about the possibility of immigration agents appearing near polling places. Several states have taken steps this year to guard against it. In February, a DHS official told a group of secretaries of state that "any suggestion that ICE will be present at any polling location is simply not true," according to several secretaries who were part of the conversation.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said ICE agents are prohibited by law from being at polling places and that Maine residents can expect a free and secure election in November. Bellows ran for governor this year but lost in the Democratic primary.

"The political rhetoric coming from Mr. Charles is just politics, but it won't change the laws or the Constitution," Bellows said.

The Maine Democratic Party criticized Charles' comments, describing his plan as likely illegal. The party also noted the timing of the remarks as the state continues to grapple with the killing of Biddeford resident Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE officer earlier this summer.

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson called Charles a "MAGA extremist" who will do Trump's bidding.

"His plan to ask Trump's border czar to send ICE agents to Maine polling places just weeks before Election Day is not only deeply alarming — it is likely illegal. This is a blatant attempt to intimidate voters and yet another reason Bobby Charles is too extreme for Maine," Murphy-Anderson said.

Federal law prohibits the military and federal agencies from putting troops or armed officers near polling sites, according to the Brennan Center.

The White House has dismissed concerns that federal agents would interfere with elections and noted there was no disruption in last year's elections, when Democrats performed well.

During his March confirmation hearing, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin downplayed concerns about ICE agents being used to intimidate voters but maintained that agents had a right to conduct immigration enforcement activities at sites related to election administration.

"I don't understand what the concern is about enforcement of immigration at polling places anyways, because honestly if you're not a citizen you shouldn't be voting anyways," Mullin testified. "So technically, there shouldn't be illegals at the polling spot."

He continued: "The only reason why my officers would be there is if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation."

Charles is an attorney who served as U.S. assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush. He won the Republican primary for governor in June and will face Democratic candidate Hannah Pingree, the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, in November. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is term-limited.