The Department of Justice has opened an investigation after surveillance video caught NGO workers filling out ballots for Somali migrants inside a Maine city hall — the machinery of replacement politics, operated one "translated" ballot at a time.
What happened in Lewiston isn't language assistance. It's ballot harvesting enabled by mass immigration, and the evidence is on camera. While NPR runs generic election-night checklists ignoring the story entirely, the actual threat to election integrity plays out in real time on CCTV.
The Maine Wire obtained roughly 140 hours of CCTV footage from Lewiston City Hall covering early in-person voting that began October 13. The video shows over 200 non-English-speaking Somalis voting with assistance from Somali NGO staffers stationed inside the building. Reporter Jon Fetherston witnessed translators "talking to people and pointing at the ballots" and "a couple of people actually touching the ballots." Video showed staffers manipulating and, in some cases, filling out ballots outright.
Maine law permits voters to request a translator, but the rules are strict: translators cannot offer assistance uninvited, cannot influence a voter's choices, cannot mark up a ballot, and cannot approach a voter already inside a booth. According to The Maine Wire, "virtually every one of these rules was violated over and over again."
US Attorney for Maine Andrew Benson confirmed the federal investigation: "We review all evidence concerning complaints of voter intimidation and election interference, including the video from Lewiston's early voting at City Hall. We will not tolerate threats to the integrity of our elections, and we look forward to working with the Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's office to defend our democracy."
Among those seen orchestrating the operation: Safiya Khalid, a former staffer at Gateway Community Services — a now-defunct migrant services agency accused of welfare fraud — and current director of the Community Organizing Alliance. Also spotted on footage was Ahmed Aska Daher, a former Gateway community health worker. The same NGO ecosystem accused of milking welfare programs now has its people inside City Hall, handling ballots.
Republican House District 94 candidate Janet Beaudoin said an interpreter told her he would instruct the person he was assisting to vote for Beaudoin — if she had been a Democrat. The partisan pipeline is barely concealed.
NPR, for its part, published a "6 things to watch on election night" guide covering bellwether districts, independent voter thresholds, and Black turnout margins. The Maine investigation did not make the list. The outlet that fancies itself the public broadcaster had nothing to say about NGO staffers caught on camera marking ballots for non-citizens — or about the immigration pipeline that put them there.
The DOJ says it won't tolerate threats to election integrity. The question is whether anything comes of it — or whether "translation" remains the legal cover for imported ballot harvesting in American elections.
