Maine's mysterious black voters

By Selwyn Duke

There are endless "anecdotes" from the last election "that prove nothing about vote fraud," as the critics put it. And one that would be comical, were this not a tragic topic, involves reports of dozens of black voters showing up to cast ballots in small Maine towns. The Portland Press Herald writes:

Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster is once again alleging possible voting irregularities, this time claiming that groups of unknown black people showed up in some rural towns to vote on Election Day.

[...]"In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day," he said. "Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in (these) towns knows anyone who's black. How did that happen? I don't know. We're going to find out."

Of course, questioning such things makes you a "racist." And one liberal commentator (no, I'm not giving him exposure by providing the link) who made this implication mocked Webster and actually suggested that these mysterious black voters' appearance might just have been a result of Democrat get-out-the-vote efforts. A tenable theory, I suppose. After all, liberals proved beyond a doubt this last election that, in the electoral universe, there is such thing as spontaneous generation. But know that those rural black Maine voters certainly do not exist. I can say this through personal experience.

Maine had always intrigued me, and some years ago I satisfied my curiosity by spending a month traveling throughout the state. After quickly driving up the coast through the fishing towns and tourist areas, I turned north to spend time where my heart always lies: the hinterlands. I camped in the North Maine Woods, and crisscrossed the central and northern parts of the state, visiting many locales, including one-horse towns that dot only detailed maps. And I can tell you something.

For all intents and purposes, there are no black folks in these regions.

To be precise, during the course of all my travels in central and northern Maine, I saw one black person. Literally. He was a singer at a church I attended one Sunday in one of the somewhat bigger towns, whose name escapes me.

In other words, the idea that there were dozens of black voters hiding in the woods near Podunk Maine towns just waiting for the motivation to vote is preposterous. These are extremely insular places in which everyone knows everyone, and outsiders stick out like a sore thumb.

To add more perspective, the 2010 census records only 15,707 black people in Maine. Approximately 30 percent of them live in the state's largest city, Portland. A small colony of Somali refugees exists in Lewiston. Virtually all the rest would be scattered on or near other parts of the coast. Go a little ways inland, and Maine is a very homogeneous place.

But this being the case, to echo the aforementioned liberal commentator, wouldn't Democrats use white fraudsters to steal votes in Maine's northern climes? Not necessarily. First, are Democrats truly more smart than they are brazen? And even if they are, do they really have to worry about being brazen? After all, history has taught them that there's little chance they'll be held accountable for vote fraud. Their enablers in the media have seen to that.

In fact, using black fraudsters may be a stroke of genius. After all, as I said earlier, any questioning of their votes can now be dismissed with "That's racist!"

© Selwyn Duke