Alaska prosecutors have dismissed voter-misconduct cases against 11 Whittier residents born in American Samoa after the state Court of Appeals ruled that a felony charge requires proof the defendant acted with a “consciousness of wrongdoing,” not merely that a sworn statement was false.
The Department of Law’s decision followed the September 4 ruling in Tupe Smith v. State. Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said prosecutors reviewed the opinion against the facts and concluded they could not prove the cases beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the Associated Press account of the dismissals.
The outcome ends the pending criminal cases, but it does not change Alaska’s underlying voter-eligibility rule. People born in American Samoa are generally U.S. nationals rather than citizens at birth, and noncitizen nationals are not eligible to vote in Alaska elections unless they later become citizens.
What the court decided
Smith had checked “citizen of the United States” on voter-registration paperwork that did not offer a separate box for U.S. nationals. She said local election workers told her to use the citizen box and that she believed she could participate in local elections. She was later elected to a school board seat but learned she was ineligible to serve.
In its published opinion, No. 2832, the three-judge panel distinguished the statute’s use of “intentionally” from the lower standard of acting “knowingly.” For first-degree voter misconduct, the court held, the state must show that a person purposely or deliberately made a false sworn statement while aware of the wrongdoing.
The court also found that a trooper’s grand-jury testimony did not accurately convey Smith’s explanation and that the grand jury received an incorrect instruction about intent. It reversed the superior court’s refusal to dismiss her indictment and returned the case for further proceedings, leaving prosecutors free to seek a new indictment under the clarified standard. They chose not to do so.
Why the standard mattered for all 11 cases
The Smith case began first. Ten additional Whittier residents were charged in April 2025 after an anonymous complaint led state investigators to review their voting histories. At the time, the Alaska Beacon reported that the new cases included felony and misdemeanor allegations tied to registration and voting.
The appeals decision did not declare the citizenship statement accurate. Instead, it changed what prosecutors must establish about a defendant’s state of mind before a false sworn statement can support the felony offense. That distinction proved decisive when the department applied the ruling to Smith and the related defendants.
The dispute also exposed an administrative gap. The ACLU’s case materials say the registration form offered no U.S.-national option and argued that unclear forms and incorrect official advice created a risk of punishing honest mistakes. Prosecutors had pointed to warnings on the forms stating that noncitizens could not vote.
For election administrators, the practical issue now is whether forms and training will be revised so U.S. nationals receive a clear eligibility answer before registration. For criminal cases, the precedential point is already set: a mistaken citizenship declaration, standing alone, is not enough for Alaska’s first-degree voter-misconduct felony.
