OPINION:
America stared at Maryland in disbelief when Des Moines, Iowa, Public School Superintendent Ian Andre Roberts was revealed to be a registered voter in the Free State. Mr. Roberts is a noncitizen with a deportation order and a gun charge. How could he be registered to vote in federal elections?
The Maryland State Board of Elections has a long list of questions to answer, far beyond putting Mr. Roberts on the voter roll. Mr. Roberts submitted not just one, but two voter registration applications in Maryland: one in 2011 and another in 2016. Functionally, all questions boil down to one question: Why does the Maryland State Board of Elections refuse to follow federal law?
The board has been reprimanded in federal court three times in the past six years for refusing to follow the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Maryland has multiple counties with more than 100% voter registration, and Marylanders report via the U.S. census that they are registered to vote at a 75.6% registration rate.
Given the 4.3 million people on Maryland’s voter roll, this implies nearly 1 million registrations are inaccurate. Are these registrations of deceased citizens? Former Marylanders who have moved out of state? Duplicate registrations? Or illegal aliens?
Whichever multitude of errors is overinflating Maryland’s voter rolls, 1 million voter registrations that do not belong to a legal voter can create havoc on election outcomes. This is especially concerning given that Maryland has no voter ID and no signature match requirement. Any Marylander’s ballot can be ordered and sent or faxed anywhere in the world by simply providing a name, address and date of birth.
What is most concerning is the State Board of Elections’ reaction to these myriad election integrity problems. The board brushed aside questions about how Mr. Roberts could have registered to vote in Maryland and remained unresponsive to basic questions regarding his being a noncitizen and, later, a nonresident.
Worse yet, the State Board of Elections reportedly advised Prince George’s County to heavily redact his registration records before disclosing them, even though it had no legal basis to do so. This includes the answer to the question: “Are you a U.S. citizen? Yes or No.” Why would that answer be redacted? After threats of litigation from Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, Prince George’s County relented and provided the full, unredacted form where Mr. Roberts indicated he was a citizen. (Pro-tip for the State Board of Elections: Illegal aliens are not allowed to vote in federal, state and most local elections!)
Even before the Roberts scandal, when the Justice Department sent an inquiry asking whether Maryland’s voter roll was compliant with the National Voter Registration Act, the State Board of Elections bragged that it had removed 15,000 registrations and was fully compliant. This past summer, I worked with law firm Consovoy McCarthy to send an inquiry about the state’s impossibly high voter registration levels.
We were told we were wrong, that the State Board of Elections “make[s] a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists,” 52 U.S.C. 20507(a)(4), in accordance with both federal and state law.” This is an interesting response, given that Maryland refuses to participate in data exchanges with half the states in the union and excludes the top four states to which Marylanders move.
When numerous Marylanders have repeatedly asked that their voter registration be removed from the rolls because of moves, etc., unmovable local boards of elections and the State Board of Elections repeatedly take no action.
These are just a few of the reasons that I, along with the Republican National Committee, the Maryland Republican Party and fellow Marylander Reardon Sullivan have filed a lawsuit against the Maryland State Board of Elections. Because the board refuses to follow federal law, it apparently must be compelled to clean our egregiously dirty voter rolls. It’s time someone stood up for Marylanders’ most sacred civil right of voting.
Last, U.S. citizenship should come with basic privileges, such as the right to vote. That right is diminished by anyone illegally casting a ballot. It’s past time for every Ian Roberts who illegally registers to vote in federal elections to face consequences.
• Nicolee Ambrose is Maryland’s Republican national committeewoman.
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