Maine’s Republican nominee for governor was caught on audio revealing plans to ask for federal agents to be stationed at polling locations during the upcoming midterm elections – an idea critics quickly blasted as “deeply alarming” and “likely illegal.”
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Bobby Charles told supporters at an Aug. 20 Maine Young Republicans event that he would ask White House border czar Tom Homan to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and U.S. Marshals to voting locations, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.
“Here’s my secret,” Charles told the crowd.
“I have a friend named Tom Homan,” he continued. “Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom’s an awesome guy.”
Charles added that he planned to ask Homan in roughly three or four weeks before Election Day “to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths.”
Facing questions about the recording, Charles said Wednesday that his point was to ensure Maine election officials could communicate with federal authorities if necessary to “prevent violence at a voting place, in order to prevent intimidation at a voting place and in order to prevent illegality at a voting place,” according to an NBC News report.
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“Everybody who is legally entitled to vote should be free from any intimidation and should be able to vote,” Charles said in a campaign statement, NBC News reported. “Anybody who is not legally entitled to vote should not be voting.”
While the Department of Homeland Security has previously said there are no plans to deploy ICE agents to polling places, a spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet: “Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders.”
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson called Charles a “MAGA extremist” and slammed his proposal.
“His plan to ask Trump’s border czar to send ICE agents to Maine polling places just weeks before Election Day is not only deeply alarming — it is likely illegal,” Murphy-Anderson said.
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