Maryland election officials have released unredacted voter registration documents showing that Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal immigrant who rose to become superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district, claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he registered to vote in Prince George’s County.
The disclosure came only after two conservative watchdog groups, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections and the American Accountability Foundation, threatened legal action. The county initially turned over heavily redacted records that concealed Roberts’s answer to the citizenship question, his sex, date of birth, and other information that federal law requires to be made publicly available.
The newly unreacted documents supplied by Prince George’s County show Roberts checked “Yes” when asked, “Are you a U.S. citizen?”
Justin Riemer, RITE’s president and a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee, said this situation illustrates how easily noncitizens can slip through Maryland’s registration process.
“When election officials attempt to hide eligibility records, the public loses the ability to verify that the law is being followed,” Riemer said, adding that the records reveal “just how weak Maryland’s safeguards really are.”
AAF president Tom Jones said the full file confirms what his group suspected from the start: that Maryland “is not serious about keeping noncitizens off the voter rolls.”
Roberts, a Guyanese national who first entered the United States in 1994, was arrested by federal immigration agents in September while serving as superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools.
Officials said he fled officers, abandoned his car, and was found with a loaded handgun, a hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash. He was later charged with being an illegal immigrant in possession of firearms and remains in federal custody.
His arrest stunned officials in both Iowa and Maryland, particularly after the Department of Homeland Security in October released a decadeslong record of criminal conduct tied to Roberts that included a 1996 narcotics arrest in New York, multiple weapons violations, and prior convictions in several states. Despite that history, Roberts held senior education jobs in Maryland for years and was registered as a Democratic voter since 2011. The Maryland State Board of Elections has said he never cast a ballot.
Watchdog groups say the real problem is structural. Maryland removes noncitizens only after receiving a “self-report” from the voter themself or a notice from jury commissioners, a system RITE says is inadequate and partly explains how Roberts remained on the rolls unnoticed for more than a decade.
The unredacted records were released after RITE warned the county it was violating the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to disclose completed registration applications, including eligibility responses. The groups gave officials until Dec. 1 to comply or face litigation. County officials ultimately backed down rather than defend the redactions in court.
Roberts’s parallel conduct elsewhere deepened scrutiny. Records obtained in Iowa showed he also claimed U.S. citizenship on his administrator’s license application and denied having any criminal history — statements now under review by state licensing authorities.
WATCHDOGS SEEK UNREDACTED MARYLAND RECORDS FOR EX-DES MOINES SUPERINTENDENT ARRESTED BY ICE
Maryland election officials previously did not explain why the citizenship answer was initially concealed or why inquiries about Roberts were being routed away from the county level to the Maryland Board of Elections.
Roberts’s educator license has since been revoked, and he faces both federal prosecution and removal proceedings.