ANNAPOLIS, Md. (7News) — His arrest by ICE was bombshell news. Ian Roberts
— the superintendent of Des Moines, Iowa schools, formerly a long-time Maryland teacher and an employee of DC schools — is accused by ICE of being in the country illegally, fleeing a traffic stop and being in illegal possession of a gun.
ICE claims the native of Guyana overstayed a student visa issued in 1999 and he’d already been ordered deported following a prior weapons charge. ICE said he had no legal right to hold a job, let alone be a superintendent of schools. The Des Moines school system is facing questions about how he could have been hired and now there are new concerns in Maryland.
RELATED | Gov. Reynolds calls arrest of Des Moines superintendent by ICE ‘shocking’
Delegate Matt Morgan of the Maryland Freedom Caucus said he discovered that Roberts was also illegally registered to vote in Maryland. Morgan said that raises serious questions about Maryland’s voter rolls. Citizenship is a requirement to take part in elections.
“We all want safe and secure elections, so if this can happen to Ian Roberts, it can happen to just about anybody,” Morgan said. “It’s not crazy to think this is not some one-off incident. And what we’re saying at the Maryland freedom caucus is, let’s just find out. I think that’s reasonable.”
7News On Your Side took that question straight to Maryland Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis.
“No One by that name has ever voted in the state of Maryland. As to the identity of the person, we cannot verify whether that is a registered voter or not in the state of Maryland, but with public records, we can say no one by that name has voted in the state,” DeMarinis said of Roberts.
As to whether others in the country illegally are on the voter rolls, DeMarinis points out that the law allows easy registration. For instance, when you get a driver’s license, you simply check a box to register and swear you are a citizen.
“Maryland has made it a policy determination to enfranchise as many people as policy so they tried to remove as many barriers as possible to that enfranchisement. Along those lines, there people may come in.,” DeMarinis said. “There are processes for cancelation of voters, whether they move out of state, whether they’re non-citizens. We have to follow our proper procedures for any cancelation. This is a constitutional right we’re dealing with.”
We also asked DeMarinis about a request from the Department of Justice for Maryland’s list of more than 4 million registered voters. He and the board of elections denied that request, citing Maryland law, which says the list can only be used for the electoral process and asked if the intent was immigration enforcement. He said he hasn’t heard from the DOJ since he sent his response a month and a half ago.
The Board of Elections and DeMarinis sent out this statement on the matter:
“When an individual registers to vote, election officials rely on the information that is provided by the voter, or in some cases information provided by the voter to other state agencies, for the verification of eligibility. They attest to meeting all of the requirements to be a registered voter under the penalty of perjury. In Maryland, those requirements are (1) Be a U.S. Citizen, (2) Be a Maryland resident, (3) Be at least 16 years old, (4) Not be under guardianship for mental disability or if you are, you have not been found by a court to be unable to communicate a desire to vote; (5) Not have been convicted of buying or selling votes; and (6) Not be currently serving a sentence of imprisonment for a felony conviction. The law prohibits an individual from securing voter registration through unlawful means; meaning that the individual may not commit perjury in order to become a registered voter.
Individuals who register via an automatic voter registration agency, for example the Motor Vehicle Agency, are safeguarded against unintentional voter registration. If an individual who does not meet the requirements of voter registration was UNINTENTIONALLY registered to vote, that individual did not violate the law against unlawful voter registration. This policy ensures the maximum number of eligible individuals can register rather than disenfranchising eligible individuals with unnecessary burdens to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
It is against the law to knowingly and willfully cause by unlawful means the name of a qualified voter to be stricken from the statewide voter registration list. Improper cancellation leads to disenfranchisement of an eligible voter. That is why it is a detailed process. It must be certain. Maryland’s process errs on the side of removing any doubt in the cancellation before potentially disenfranchising a voter. Without necessary verification steps, per Maryland state law, election officials are not permitted to cancel a voter registration record. Generally, a record cannot be cancelled by any means other than a voter requesting in writing that their record be cancelled, or from information sent by a legally prescribed and verified source.
This includes when a voter moves to another state and when a voter is not eligible due to being a noncitizen. However, each of these removals is limited in the information or source that can be used to cancel the voter. With regard to out-of-state address changes, the voter can be cancelled if that information is received from the voter, Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) reports or another state elections official. The match for the individual has been verified and confirmed, based on several pieces of personally identifiable information. A name match doesn’t automatically mean it is the same individual.
Canceling voters for noncitizenship occurs if the State Board of Elections (SBE) or a local board receive information regarding citizenship status by the voter, “self-report” or a report to the jury commissioners.
Once established as a noncitizen, SBE has a process whereby it works with the Office of the State Prosecutor to refer any such situations for further investigation for any enforcement actions. While no voter should be on the Maryland voter rolls if they are not a citizen of the United States, being on the voter rolls does not equate to having voted in an election. This is an important distinction as investigations of potential illegalities proceed.
It has recently been brought to the attention of SBE that a search for a voter, Ian Andre Roberts, using the public facing Voter Lookup Tool, revealed a voting record for a registered Maryland voter. The Voter Lookup Tool is not an investigative tool but a public application to assist voters to get basic information on their registration and elections. It is designed to help voters vote.
SBE does not and cannot confirm that the identity of a voter matches that of another voter record in another state, based merely on the public facing information available. Similarly, other states, as in Maryland, public information voter lookups are limited in order to protect personal identifying information (PII) from disclosure. Therefore, SBE cannot and will not publicly announce whether media reports about the individual in question is or is not or was or was not a registered voter in Maryland.
Voting history is publicly available information in the State of Maryland. That information can be requested from a Public Information Act request. A review of this public information did not show any voting history for any individual with the name Ian Andre Roberts in Maryland.
This office is transparent about its voter registration list maintenance process. It is a secure and verified method. Maryland procedures for voter registration list maintenance are set forth in the Election Law Article and COMAR. Maryland’s list maintenance processes are generally explained on the State Board of Elections Website: https://elections.maryland.gov/voter_registration/list_maintenance.html.
This office will not disenfranchise a voter based upon partial or unsubstantiated evidence. The right to vote is a sacred right that has been expanded through sacrifices of many before us. The State Board works diligently to ensure that every eligible Marylander can register to vote in accordance with federal and State laws. And works collaboratively with the local boards to maintain up to date voter rolls. This office has initiated several initiatives to assist in making the voter registration list accurate in accordance with State and federal laws, for example, the creation of the audit division at SBE to ensure voter registration list maintenance is occurring and in compliance at the local boards.
In the end, it is important to remember as our guiding principle that as the Maryland Declaration of Rights states “the right of the People to participate in the Legislature is the best security of liberty and the foundation of all free Government; . . . and every citizen having the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution, ought to have the right of suffrage.”
Maryland voter registration and elections are Verified, Open, Trusted and Empowering.”
