Alaska prosecutors have dropped voter misconduct cases against 11 residents born in American Samoa after an appeals court ruled that the state had to prove they knowingly acted wrongfully when they marked themselves as US citizens on voting forms.
The decision follows a ruling by the Alaska Court of Appeals on 4 September which overturned the indictment of Tupe Smith, a Whittier resident who said local officials told her to select the citizenship option because the forms did not include a box for US nationals.
Acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills said prosecutors had reviewed the judgment and concluded they could not prove the cases beyond reasonable doubt under the legal test set out by the court.
“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,” Ms Mills said.
The cases involved residents of Whittier, a small community about 50 miles south-east of Anchorage. They were accused of falsely claiming US citizenship when registering or attempting to vote, including Smith’s husband, Michael Pese.
The appeals court said Alaska’s voter misconduct law required more than proof that a statement was false. Prosecutors also had to show that a defendant acted with a “consciousness of wrongdoing” when making the statement.
Judges found that a state trooper had given the grand jury an inaccurate account of Smith’s police interview. They also ruled that jurors had been given the wrong explanation of the meaning of “intentionally” in the relevant law.
Smith, whose first language is not English, had told investigators that she normally identified herself as a US national. She said she believed she could vote in local elections, despite understanding that she was not eligible to vote for president, and had relied on guidance from officials in Whittier.
Prosecutors had argued that warnings on registration forms stating that non-citizens could not vote showed she deliberately claimed to be a citizen. But the court said Smith could have honestly believed there was no relevant difference between being a US national and a US citizen for the purposes of local voting.
American Samoa is the only US territory where people are not automatically granted US citizenship at birth. Those born there are generally US nationals: they may obtain American passports and serve in the military, but are barred from voting in most US elections outside the territory.
Whitney Brown, Smith’s lawyer, said the dismissal would allow the community to move on from the case. She said the ruling provided an important safeguard against felony liability for an honest mistake.
Neil Weare, co-director of the Right to Democracy Project and a member of the legal team representing Smith and Pese, said the decision raised questions about why the prosecutions had been brought.
“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,” he said.
