Alaska prosecutors are dropping voter misconduct cases against a group of residents born in American Samoa after a state appeals court threw out felony charges against a woman who wrongly checked a box saying she was a US citizen.
The state’s department of law announced the decision on Friday, after a three-judge court of appeals panel ruled a week earlier that state law requires proof that defendants who erroneously filled out voter registration forms had a “consciousness of wrongdoing” and intended to break the law.
The panel found flaws with a state trooper’s questioning of Tupe Smith, the woman involved in the case that was thrown out, as well as with the grand jury process that led to her indictment. It overturned a lower court’s decision that had kept the charges against her alive.
Cori Mills, Alaska’s acting attorney general, said in a statement that after reviewing the decision and applying the facts, prosecutors concluded that they could not prove cases against Smith and the others beyond a reasonable doubt. Her husband, Michael Pese, had also been charged.
“We respect the role of the courts in interpreting Alaska law and will faithfully execute our duty to apply the law and carefully evaluate our prosecutorial decisions,” Mills said.
Smith’s lawyer Whitney Brown heralded the court of appeals decision, saying in a statement last week it “establishes an important safeguard against imposing felony liability for an honest mistake”.
Neil Weare, part of the legal team representing Smith and Pese, said on Saturday that the decision to drop charges “raises questions about why this prosecution was even brought to begin with”.
“It’s clear that all along, they really had no evidence of any consciousness of wrongdoing on the part of Michael, Tupe or the other defendants,” said Weare, a co-director of the Right to Democracy non-profit.
In all, 11 people from the small community of Whittier, about 60 miles (100km) south-east of Anchorage, were charged with falsely claiming US citizenship either when registering or trying to vote. Messages seeking comment were left for their lawyers.
after newsletter promotion
American Samoa is the only US territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered US nationals. Paths to citizenship exist, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.
American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain US passports and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the US nor participate in most US elections.
Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. She has said she relied on erroneous information from election officials in Whittier when she identified herself as a US citizen on voter registration forms.
Smith said she marks herself as a US national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark herself as a citizen, according to court papers.
Prosecutors contended that Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship, pointing to warnings on voter registration forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022 that non-citizens “are not eligible to vote”.
