Maine GOP governor nominee revealed on audio calling for ICE and Marshals at polling sites
Key Takeaways
- •Bobby Charles told supporters he wanted Tom Homan to arrange for ICE agents and U.S. Marshals to be present at voting locations before Election Day.
- •Charles later said he meant for election officials to have a way to contact federal authorities if violence, intimidation, or illegal activity occurred.
- •The Department of Homeland Security has said there are no plans to deploy ICE agents to polling places.
- •Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson criticized the proposal as deeply alarming and likely illegal.
- •The controversy comes amid a broader national debate over election security, immigration enforcement, and authority at polling sites.
Maine’s Republican nominee for governor was caught on audio describing plans to ask for federal agents to be stationed at polling locations during the upcoming midterm elections, an idea critics quickly described as “deeply alarming” and “likely illegal.”
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.”
After questions arose about the recording, Charles said Wednesday that his intent 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.
“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.”
The Department of Homeland Security has previously said there are no plans to deploy ICE agents to polling places. But a spokesperson told the outlet: “Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders.”
The episode lands in a broader national debate over election security, immigration enforcement and who has authority at polling sites, especially as campaigns head into the final stretch before November voting. Maine’s election system, like others in the U.S., is run by state and local officials, making any federal law-enforcement presence at polling locations politically sensitive and likely to draw scrutiny from election administrators and legal observers.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson called Charles a “MAGA extremist” and denounced the 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.
