ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Department of Law announced on Friday that it is dropping voter misconduct cases against a group of residents born in American Samoa. The decision to drop charges followed a ruling by a three-judge Alaska Court of Appeals panel one week earlier that threw out felony charges against Tupe Smith.

Acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills stated that prosecutors concluded they could not prove the cases against Smith and the other defendants beyond a reasonable doubt. "We respect the role of the courts in interpreting Alaska law and will faithfully execute our duty to apply the law and carefully evaluate our prosecutorial decisions," she said.

Eleven people from the community of Whittier were charged with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship either when registering or trying to vote. Michael Pese, the husband of Smith, had also been charged in the case.

Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. She stated she relied on erroneous information from election officials in Whittier when she identified herself as a U.S. citizen on voter registration forms. According to court papers, Smith said she marks herself as a U.S. national on paperwork but was told by city representatives it was appropriate to mark herself as a citizen when no such option existed on voter registration forms. Prosecutors contended that Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship, pointing to warnings on voter registration forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022 that noncitizens 'are not eligible to vote.'

The Court of Appeals panel stated that toward the end of a police interview, a state trooper asked Smith a long compound question that implied she knew she was not eligible to vote but wanted to be involved in the school board. The panel described the trooper's question as a lengthy and complex statement containing four individual questions. The panel noted that when Smith, whose native language is not English, did not respond right away, another state trooper clarified, 'He’s asking you,' and the first trooper again presented his question. The panel stated that Smith answered 'Yes' to the trooper's question, leading to her arrest and indictment on two counts of felony voter misconduct.

Why It Matters

American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and are instead considered U.S. nationals. American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports, and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections. Paths to citizenship exist for American Samoans, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.

Timeline

In 2023, Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board. On September 4, 2026, the decision to drop charges followed a ruling by a three-judge Alaska Court of Appeals panel one week earlier that threw out felony charges against Smith. The Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision that had kept the charges against Smith alive.

The Court of Appeals panel found flaws with a state trooper’s questioning of Smith and with the grand jury process that led to her indictment. The Court of Appeals ruled that Alaska state law requires proof that defendants who erroneously filled out voter registration forms had a 'consciousness of wrongdoing' and intended to break the law. Smith’s lawyer Whitney Brown stated that the Court of Appeals decision establishes an important safeguard against imposing felony liability for an honest mistake. Brown said, "The court made clear that Alaska law requires more than simply showing that a statement was false — the State must prove a person acted with a consciousness of wrongdoing." She added, "That distinction makes a world of difference to Ms. Smith and helps ensure that Alaska’s voter-misconduct statute is applied as the legislature intended going forward."

What's New

A study titled "The American Samoan Oxymoron: The Noncitizen National And The Meaning Of Citizenship" was published in 2026 in eYLS (Yale Law School). The Alaska Department is a department of the government of Alaska. The Court of Appeals is a current United States federal appellate court.