Dozens of people rallied outside the Anchorage courthouse Friday in support of a family of Whittier residents from American Samoa being arraigned on charges of illegal voting, in a case that may have reverberations for a national effort to extend full citizenship rights to people born in the U.S. territory.
State prosecutors have charged the Whittier residents with illegally voting in local elections, contending that because they were born in the territory of American Samoa they are not citizens but nationals and don’t have the right to vote.
People born in all other U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas, get American citizenship at birth. American Samoans are considered U.S. nationals. Prosecutors say the family members misrepresented themselves on paperwork. The family members — ranging in age from their 20s to 60s — are facing felony charges, some of which come with a term of up to 10 years in prison.
On Wednesday, the Whittier City Council passed a resolution calling for the state to amend the state constitution to allow citizens of U.S. territories to vote in local and state elections, and “reaffirming its support for equal voting rights” for citizens of the U.S. or its territories, including those born in American Samoa.
The cases represent the first time American Samoans have been prosecuted “solely on where they happened to be born,” said Neil Weare, the co-founder of Right to Democracy, a national nonprofit that advocates for the rights of people living in U.S. territories, including American Samoa. Attorneys for the group are representing Tupe Smith, the first American Samoan family member to be charged with voter fraud, and attorneys from the group flew to Alaska for the arraignments.
At the Friday rally, attended by several dozen people, people gathered for a prayer and sang “Lo Ta Nu’u,” a traditional song celebrating Samoa, before taking a group photo and walking into the Nesbett Courthouse together.
In a basement courtroom, nine members of the family made a first court appearance and entered not guilty pleas. Another member was out of the area and is set to be arraigned next week. Several defendants were appointed public defenders after they said they couldn’t afford a private attorney. All were released with no bail.
The cases reveal how American Samoans are treated differently, said Michael Pese, one of the people charged and a Whittier volunteer firefighter.
“If America goes to war, we get drafted,” he said. “But we don’t have the vote.”
Pese said he and his family hadn’t expected “this much impact,” but were glad for the support. The ultimate goal, he said, is not only to defend the criminal case against him but to see American Samoans allowed to vote.
“We’re from American Samoa. It’s in the name. Our territory has been a U.S. territory for 125 years, way longer than the state of Alaska has been a state,” he said. “I hope we get the same rights.”
Pese said that his family has lived in Whittier for more than a decade. His wife, Tupe Smith, in 2023 was the first to be charged after she ran for school board.
The family intends to remain in Whittier.
“It’s our home,” he said.
The issue has caused “unintended reverberations” in Whittier, said the community’s mayor, Dan Blair, who also said he attended the rally in Anchorage on Friday as a citizen in support of the family.
Blair said people in the community are still unsettled by what they described as a raid by more than a dozen Alaska State Troopers, who arrived in the community in September to investigate the family members later charged with voter fraud. The city has filed public records requests for an explanation of the action.
“The large presence implied there was some attempt at intimidation of our community members, and it was unsettling,” he said.
In Whittier, more than half of the schoolchildren have parents who are American Samoans, Blair said.
“The fear and the unknown — yeah, it’s inevitable it gets to the children," he said.
After Friday’s arraignment, the family was headed home to Whittier when they came upon a collision on the Seward Highway near Indian, Weare said.
Pese, a trained first responder, jumped out and stopped to help the victim until paramedics arrived.