Prince George’s County in Maryland is under fire for blacking out key details in the voter registration records of Ian Andre Roberts, the former Des Moines school superintendent arrested by ICE in September. Roberts, a Guyanese national who entered the U.S. in 1994 and stayed illegally after his work authorization expired in 2020, managed to climb the ranks in education while racking up a string of criminal charges.
The story broke when watchdog groups requested his Maryland voter files under the National Voter Registration Act. What they got back were documents riddled with 18 redactions, hiding basics like his gender, date of birth, and even the box where he affirmed U.S. citizenship.
“This was shocking,” said Justin Riemer, CEO of the Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE). Riemer pointed out that while sensitive info like Social Security numbers can be protected, there’s no excuse for scrubbing citizenship claims or gender.
“When I saw the news reporting, and they showed screenshots of the registration applications with all this information redacted, I was just shocked.”
RITE and American Accountability Foundation (AAF) have submitted an NVRA request to Prince George’s County Board of Elections for the voter-registration records of Ian Andre Roberts.
Roberts, a Guyanese national under a final order of removal issued in May 2024, was serving as… pic.twitter.com/M8730sQNto
— Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) (@Restoring_USA) November 19, 2025
Roberts’ criminal record, detailed by ICE in October, includes a 1996 charge for possessing narcotics with intent to sell in New York, a 2020 weapons possession case, and a 2022 conviction for unlawful firearm possession in Pennsylvania. During his Iowa arrest on a traffic stop, authorities found him with a loaded Glock 9mm, a hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash—he even tried to flee. Federal charges followed for illegal possession of firearms as an undocumented immigrant.
Despite all this, Roberts registered as a Democrat in Maryland and stayed on the voter rolls long after moving to Iowa. The state even kept mailing him ballots weeks after his illegal status went public. Maryland election officials insist he never actually voted, but the registration alone has fueled demands for a full voter roll audit from Republican lawmakers.
RITE and the American Accountability Foundation aren’t backing down. They fired off a letter to the county board demanding cleaner records by December 1, threatening a federal lawsuit if ignored.
“If you redact or withhold any portion of the requested records beyond the limited exceptions above, we will immediately follow up with a written notice of your violation,” the letter warned. Riemer noted this isn’t Maryland’s first rodeo—his group sued the state last year over similar transparency blocks and won in March.
The heavy redactions raise questions about what else might be buried in the system. Cases like Oregon’s, where thousands of non-citizens got registered through the DMV, show these aren’t isolated slips. Roberts slipped through cracks in multiple school districts, from Baltimore principal to Iowa’s top educator, despite red flags that should have triggered deportation years ago.
“It doesn’t take one to see just how… broken the system has been,” Riemer said.
“If they noticed that Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections was part of this effort to get this information, they should have, because we sued Maryland last year for violating the National Voter Registration Act for restricting public access to registration records just like they’re doing here and won that lawsuit in March. And so they just continuously are doing these practices that are not transparent, they’re not what federal law requires, it’s not what the public deserves,” he added.
As the deadline looms, eyes are on Prince George’s County. Will they cough up the full files, or is this another layer in a pattern of shielding flaws in immigration and election oversight? The fallout could push for tougher checks to keep non-citizens off ballots and out of sensitive jobs around kids.
Box 1 states:
Are you at least 16 years old?
Are you a US citizen?
if you answer NO to either question, DO NOT COMPLETE THIS FORM.
Gotta protect the ‘sources and methods’ and all…… More BS. Our system of classification has little to nothing to do with protecting sources, methods, privacy or anything else. Things get classified to protect the government — from wrongdoing, illegality, embarrassment, and to protect the narrative — nothing else.