Alaska drops voter misconduct cases against American Samoans who wrongly checked ‘US citizen’ box

Alaska prosecutors are dropping voter misconduct cases against American Samoan residents who mistakenly checked the “U.S. citizen” box on their registration forms. This decision comes after a state appeals court overturned felony charges against one of the accused, Tupe Smith, who had been wrongly told by election officials to identify herself as a U.S. citizen when she actually identified as a U.S. national.

The Court of Appeals ruled that prosecutors must prove defendants acted with a "consciousness of wrongdoing" to convict them of voter misconduct, which they could not do in Smith's case. The state’s Department of Law announced the decision, stating they could not prove cases against Smith and the other 10 defendants beyond a reasonable doubt.

American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by birth and must undergo a more complicated path to citizenship, if they choose to pursue it.