Alaska prosecutors are dropping voter misconduct cases against a group of residents born in American Samoa after a state appeals court threw out felony charges against a woman who wrongly checked a box saying she was a US citizen, per the AP. The state's Department of Law announced the decision Friday, after a three-judge Court of Appeals panel ruled a week earlier that state law requires proof that defendants who erroneously filled out voter registration forms had a "consciousness of wrongdoing" and intended to break the law.
In all, 11 people from the small community of Whittier, about 50 miles southeast of Anchorage, were charged with falsely claiming US citizenship either when registering or trying to vote. American Samoa is the only US territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered US nationals. American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain US passports, and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the US or participate in most US elections.
One woman, Tupe Smith, was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. Smith said she marks herself as a US national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark herself as a citizen, according to court papers. The Court of Appeals panel said in its ruling that toward the end of a police interview, a state trooper asked Smith "a long compound question that implied that Smith actually knew she was not eligible to vote" but wanted to be involved in the school board. Smith, whose native language is not English, eventually answered "Yes," the panel said, leading to her arrest and indictment on two counts of felony voter misconduct.
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