Video Shows Somali 'Translators' Appearing to Steer Elderly Voters in a Maine Polling Place, Maine Wire Reports
Breitbart says the recording suggests helpers approached voters and pointed to choices, which Maine law does not allow. Poll workers asked one to leave. The account relies on one outlet's video.
Breitbart News reports that a conservative outlet recorded what looks like translators guiding elderly Somali voters inside a Maine polling place, which would break state law if confirmed.
What was recorded. Jon Fetherston of the Maine Wire watched and filmed women in hijabs who, he says, approached voters, walked them to a booth and pointed out whom to vote for. Breitbart says photos appeared to show two translators in the booth with one elderly voter. Poll workers asked the translator to leave over her insistence she meant to stay and help.
The rules. In Maine, a voter must ask for a translator. A translator may not approach voters to offer help, wait inside the voting area, choose for the voter or handle the ballot. Only one may be in the booth, and the translator must read the full ballot choices aloud. Breitbart says the clerk in Lewiston issued guidance on how voters may use translators after Fetherston's post on X.
A second complaint. The Maine Wire also says it caught Democratic state Rep. Scott Harriman at a demonstration just outside the room where voters were marking ballots, organized, Breitbart says, by the Maine People's Alliance. Maine bans electioneering within 250 feet of a polling place. Breitbart's description of the group as "Soros-funded" is the outlet's characterization.
Note for readers: this is Breitbart's account of a Maine Wire report. We did not see the video, and Breitbart says the conduct "seemed" to violate the law, which is not a finding. The piece includes no comment from the translators, Harriman, the Maine People's Alliance or the Lewiston clerk, and nothing suggests how any ballot was cast. We covered the Susan Collins race in Maine earlier.