Democrats have been telling us for years that voter fraud doesn’t exist. But after 250 ballots were found mysteriously in a woman’s Amazon box in Maine, it is clearer than ever that Maine — like every other state — needs voter ID laws.
On Sept. 30, a woman in Newburgh, Maine, received a battered Amazon box that was covered in tape. Inside was her Amazon order — along with official ballots for an upcoming election, when Mainers will vote on, of all things, requiring photo ID to vote.
Democrats are frantically opposed to Question One, which would require identification for voting and prohibit people from dropping off other people’s ballots. Maine Democrat Party Chairman Charlie Dingman recently sent out a text message to supporters warning that if the voter ID law passes, Democrats would lose about 13,000 votes in Maine’s elections. Give him credit for candor: Democrats openly oppose voter integrity because honest elections will make it more difficult for them to win.
The woman in charge of securing the integrity of Maine’s elections is Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a former ACLU staffer and career left-wing activist who unsuccessfully tried to remove President Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024. Bellows has claimed that voter fraud simply doesn’t exist in Maine. However, she has admitted that some noncitizens might be registered to vote. Meanwhile, she has announced that she is running for governor of Maine next year at the same time she is overseeing the election.
Bellows says that she has opened an investigation into the missing ballots. Time will tell if she will toe the national Democrat Party line that voter fraud isn’t happening and it’s not a big deal if it is. It’s worth remembering that Bellows recently told the U.S. Department of Justice to “go jump in the Gulf of Maine” when it requested Maine’s voter rolls.
Despite Democrats’ gaslighting, the facts are clear. Voter fraud is a reality, and it will remain a reality unless we take the right policy steps to secure the integrity of our elections. In 2018, the North Carolina state election board ordered a complete redo of a congressional election because of rampant fraud. The Department of Homeland Security recently arrested an illegal alien in Iowa who was reportedly registered to vote — in Maryland. Last month, the Department of Justice charged two men in Pennsylvania with voter fraud. The examples go on and on — but Democrats deny them in order to block voter ID laws.
Democrats should recognize that voters from both parties and from all backgrounds overwhelmingly support requiring ID to vote. According to Gallup, four out of five Americans support voter ID. It’s not partisan. It’s not ideological. It’s common sense: You need an ID to board an airplane or buy a beer, but Democrats seem to think that “our democracy” requires less security than buying Sudafed. Once again, Democrats have virtue-signaled themselves onto the wrong side of an 80-20 issue.
If Question One passes in November, missing ballots like the ones found in the Amazon box wouldn’t be a problem because a voter would need to submit a copy of his photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot. But without voter ID laws, missing ballots could lead to massive fraud.
In a purple state like Maine, a lot is at stake. Maine tends to split its electoral votes, for example, between the red, rural north of the state and deep-blue Portland. In a narrowly divided country, Maine could help tip an Electoral College tally or even help decide the balance of power in both houses of Congress, making Question One an issue not just of state importance, but also of national importance.
Democrats want us to trust our elections unquestioningly — but they refuse to take any steps whatsoever toward earning that trust. Now is the time to put an end to mystery ballot deliveries in Amazon boxes by enacting voter ID in Maine. Real democracy requires trustworthy elections, and trustworthy elections require voter ID.