By
Steve Robinson October 10, 2024 themainewire.com
An investigation by the Maine Wire has found multiple votes cast in the names of Maine Democrats who are described in Medicaid records as legal or illegal immigrants.
Whistleblower records obtained by the Maine Wire, along with voter registration records from the Maine Secretary of State’s office, show that multiple votes have been cast in Maine under the names of legal and illegal aliens who should be ineligible to vote in U.S. federal, state, and local Maine elections.
The records include state-managed Medicaid billing profiles showing the names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, and immigration statuses of legal aliens and illegal aliens.
The records show the legal and illegal aliens billing Medicaid, known in Maine as MaineCare, for hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. They were provided to the Maine Wire by a whistleblower concerned about potentially fraudulent billing practices at a healthcare provider in Maine.
When the identities of the 18 legal and illegal aliens named in the records were cross-referenced with voting records from the Maine Secretary of State, six of the individuals were registered to vote, five had voted in elections since 2016, and all were registered Democrats.
If their immigration statuses have been correctly recorded in Maine’s MaineCare system, then none of the individuals should be legally allowed to register to vote or vote in U.S. federal, state, or local Maine elections.
The Maine Wire is withholding the records themselves as well as unique identifying information about the individuals in order to protect sensitive health information of the immigrants as well as the source’s identity.
Three of the illegally registered voters are described in Maine’s state-managed Medicaid portal as “2-Legal Alien,” and three are described in the system as “3-Other.”
None are listed as “1-U.S. Citizen,” which is the other available option.
None of the individuals received social security numbers in the years in which they were born, indicating that they were only given social security numbers — or the equivalent identifier given to immigrants — after coming to the U.S.
The individuals range in age from 35 to 74. According to SSN-Check.org, they received their social security numbers at ages ranging from 16 to 58. Four of the individuals received their social security numbers in Maine, while one received their number in Georgia and another received theirs in California.
Two of the individuals who are over the age of 65 are described in the records as ineligible for Medicare, which is another indication that these individuals are not U.S. citizens. Illegal aliens are ineligible for the federal health care program regardless of their age, and only certain legal aliens are eligible for Medicare if they’ve worked legally for long enough within the U.S.
One of those individuals, a 68-year-old female whose Alien Status is listed as “3-Other” in the records, was registered to vote in May 2019 and, in the 2020 election, an absentee ballot was cast in her name.
The other, a 74-year-old female listed in the records as “2-Legal Alien,” was registered to vote in Oct. 2016. Ballots were cast in that individual’s name in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022.
In 2016 and 2020, those votes were cast by absentee ballot.
The records offer no indication as to whether the individuals intentionally registered to vote and cast the ballots themselves or were registered to vote by another party and had ballots cast in their name without their knowledge or permission.
Several of the medical records indicate that the registered Democratic voters have severe intellectual or developmental disabilities and cognitive impairment.
One voter, who has not voted but was registered to vote as a Democrat in June, is described in the medical records as having “no cognitive capacity.”
All but one of the individuals has an address that corresponds with taxpayer-subsidized public housing.
The records for all six registered Maine voters indicate that they require interpreters when receiving medical care, as English is not their primary language. Several are recorded as speaking no English.
Any interpreter services would also be paid for by MaineCare.
Although non-citizens are generally ineligible for health care coverage under federal Medicaid rules, Maine is one of a handful of states that will nonetheless cover certain non-citizens via the state-administered program.
Maine’s MaineCare/Medicaid rules shed light on what it means for these six registered Democrats to be classified as either “2-Legal Alien” or “3-Other” in the MaineCare system.
The “2-Legal Alien” category includes individuals who are legal permanent residents (green card holders), refugees, asylees, and asylum applicants who have been paroled.
The “3-Other” category includes people who may be undocumented or have an uncertain immigration status, such as those who have not begun or completed the asylum process.
Green card holders, legal permanent residents, asylum recipients, asylum applicants, aspiring asylum applicants, and illegal immigrants are prohibited from voting in U.S. federal, state, and local Maine elections.
It’s unclear how or why these six individuals — despite not being U.S. citizens — have become registered to vote as Democrats and, in several cases, have had votes cast in their names in U.S. elections.
However, Maine does not affirmatively verify citizenship when an individual attempts to register to vote, and instead relies only on the individual’s attestation that they are, in fact, eligible to vote as proof that they are eligible to vote.
Maine is also not among the states that requires voters to present photo identification in order to obtain an absentee ballot or cast a ballot on Election Day.
For the past four years, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) and the Democrat-controlled legislature have shot down several attempts at implementing election integrity reforms that would prevent non-citizens from voting, including proposed voter ID laws.
The sample of records obtained by the Maine Wire is a tiny portion of the population of legal and illegal aliens currently residing in Maine.
Immigrant advocacy groups estimate that anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 legal and illegal immigrants currently reside in Maine, but it is unclear how many of them are also registered to vote and voting in U.S. elections — or having votes cast in their names by other parties.
Individuals with additional information about suspected MaineCare fraud or non-citizen voting can contact this reporter at Robinson@themainewire.com or @BigSteve207 on X.com
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