Maryland mailed absentee ballots to a convicted illegal immigrant — for years

Did Maryland just mail absentee ballots to a convicted illegal immigrant — for years? Yes. Here’s what the records show.

Ian Andre Roberts, the Guyanese national who scammed his way into school superintendent jobs across the country, was on Maryland’s voter rolls for more than a decade — registered twice, despite never being a U.S. citizen. The state kept mailing him absentee ballots. There is no record of what happened to them.

Maryland finally removed Roberts on June 2, days after he was sentenced to two years in federal prison for gun possession and falsely claiming citizenship to land an Iowa superintendent job. State election officials had resisted removing him for months — through his arrest in September, through his guilty plea in January — even as the case made national headlines.

Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis had warned against “improper cancellation,” suggesting concern about removing eligible voters rather than ineligible ones.

State Delegate Matt Morgan, St. Mary’s County Republican, wasn’t buying it.

“It practically took an act of God to get him removed from the rolls,” Mr. Morgan told The Washington Times. “The board has sent a loud and clear message to illegitimate voters: Maryland’s elections are ripe for fraud.”

Maryland relies on would-be voters to self-report their citizenship. Roberts checked the citizenship box — and signed under penalty of perjury — twice.

Read more:

• Ian Roberts, prominent illegal immigrant criminal, is finally booted from Maryland’s voter list