Alaska State Court of Appeals Stops Prosecution of Tupe Smith

On September 4, the Alaska State Court of Appeals issued an order to stop the ongoing criminal prosecution of Tupe Smith. Smith v State of Alaska, A-14529. Here is the order.

Tupe Smith, who was born in American Samoa, was elected to the School Board of Whittier in 2023. But then it was discovered that she should never have been allowed to register to vote, because she had been born in American Samoa and had never been naturalized. American Samoans are the only people who live in a U.S. possession who are not deemed to be U.S. citizens at birth. Instead they are classed as “U.S. Nationals.”

When Smith registered to vote in Alaska, there was no checkbox for “U.S. National”. She asked the election official for advice and was told to check the box that said she was a citizen. The State Court of Appeals noted that in order for her to be prosecuted for the felony of falsely registering to vote, the Alaska law requires that the prosecution show that the misconduct was made “intentionally.” The court then concluded that Smith had not intentionally done anything wrong. The opinion contrasts “intentionally” with “knowingly”.


Comments

Alaska State Court of Appeals Stops Prosecution of Tupe Smith — 8 Comments

  1. The reason American Somoans are American Nationals and not American citizens is because American Samoans wanted to be able to control immigration into American Samoa. If they had accepted American citizenship they would have had to have given up any say over who moves to American Samoa, any American citizen as well as any legal immigrant under the US federal government’s immigration laws would have been able to move there and the American Samoans did not want that as they wanted to protect their Samoan culture and put American Samoans first. So they rejected American citizenship and became American nationals instead. As American nationals they can travel to anywhere in the USA without a passport and they can live anywhere in the USA, but they can’t vote in elections or run for political offices, except for in American Samoa.

  2. Andy, was there ever an election in American Samoa in which voters expressed themselves via some sort of ballot measure?

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