The state of Alaska has charged 10 U.S. nationals in the small community of Whittier with voter misconduct and perjury.
The charges say the defendants were born in American Samoa, which makes them nationals but not citizens. Alaska law allows only U.S. citizens to vote.
The case is sure to get attention, because non-citizen voting has become a hot-button issue nationally. President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud was a reason he lost the 2020 election.
The state began investigating the Whittier case in late 2023.
“There was an anonymous call that came to the Division of Elections about non-U.S. citizens that had registered to vote, who were voting,” said Alaska Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore.
The charges say all 10 defendants voted or tried to vote in Whittier City elections or for the regional school board. Some are also alleged to have at least tried to vote in primaries.
Mathew Pese, 32, is among the few alleged to have made an attempt, or actually voted in the 2020 general election. A Facebook account that appears to be his has a lot of religious posts and several that praise or celebrate Trump. He did not respond to a Facebook message for comment, nor did several other defendants Alaska Public Media attempted to contact through Facebook.
The charges say Pese told investigators that he remembered his wife had once said he couldn’t vote because he wasn’t a citizen. Other defendants said they thought they were allowed to vote in local elections but not for president, according to the charges.
Troopers investigated by looking at the list of all 288 registered voters in Whittier and determining which were born outside of U.S. states.
Skidmore said it’s important in any democracy to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots.
“We're not interested in anyone's race, ethnicity, political background — none of that stuff matters,” Skidmore said. “We're simply looking at the laws that say, ‘This is how you determine who is supposed to be voting. This is how you determine who isn't.’ And when we get complaints of people that shouldn't be voting, that's what we look into and investigate and, where appropriate, file charges.
Every year the state gets a few allegations of illegal voting and has charged about five cases in as many years, Skidmore said.
“If you think about all of the folks across the state that vote in any given election, to have this few charges filed means by and large, it's not something that we find happens,” Skidmore said. “Most of the investigations that we conduct result in determinations that charges are not appropriate to be filed. But in those cases where we do find sufficient evidence to say that crimes did occur, then we will file charges, as we have here.”
Each defendant has been charged with at least one perjury charge, a Class B felony that is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, though Skidmore said it was too early to know any conviction would result in jail time. The defendants have not been arrested but have summonses to appear in court.
Trump swept Whittier in the divisive 2020 election. He got 74 votes, more than twice the vote total of Joe Biden.
