Overview
- Bobby Charles told activists he will ask Trump ally Tom Homan to place ICE agents and U.S. marshals at Maine polling locations this fall.
- Charles’s campaign did not dispute the remark and said the request is meant to prevent illegal voting.
- A 19th‑century federal law and legal groups say armed federal agents may not be stationed at polling places except to repel an attack, which experts call likely illegal here.
- The Department of Homeland Security has said its officers would go to polls only to address a specific threat and not as a tool for intimidation.
- The comment has become a major campaign issue for Charles as he trails Democrat Hannah Pingree and follows heightened local tensions after a July ICE operation in Biddeford that left a civilian dead.