A dispute is escalating in Maryland after a county elections board released heavily redacted voter registration records tied to Ian Andre Roberts, an undocumented immigrant who served as superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools until his arrest by federal authorities earlier this year.
Justin Riemer — CEO of the conservative legal organization Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) — said he was stunned by the extent of the edits when the documents became public.
“When I saw the screenshots of the registration applications with all this information blacked out, I was shocked,” Riemer told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview Friday.
Prince George’s County’s Board of Elections released Roberts’ voter registration paperwork, but obscured multiple fields, including his sex, whether he marked the citizenship attestation, his date of birth, and other details. Riemer, acting as counsel for RITE and the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), is seeking a less-redacted version of the file.
Roberts, a native of Guyana who first entered the United States in 1994, was superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district when Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him in September. Federal officials have said he was no longer authorized to work in the U.S. after his employment authorization card expired in 2020.
His arrest drew national attention, particularly among conservatives, who pointed to his senior role in a major public school system. As reporters and investigators examined Roberts’ background, additional allegations surfaced. Records showed he was registered as a Democrat in Maryland, where he previously lived, and the Department of Homeland Security later noted a 2012 reckless-driving conviction.
Maryland’s State Board of Elections has said Roberts did not cast a ballot.
Riemer argued the larger issue is how Roberts was able to work for years in multiple districts without his immigration and employment status being flagged.
“I’m an election law expert, not an immigration expert, but it doesn’t take one to see how broken the system has been,” he said. “He has multiple criminal charges and worked in school districts where proper checks should have caught this.”
Seeking clarity on the voting-records side, AAF filed a public-records request with Prince George’s County for Roberts’ registration application. While the board released the documents, it removed what Riemer calls information that federal law requires to be public.
He said redacting identifying numbers like Social Security or driver’s-license data is understandable, but blocking fields such as gender or a citizenship attestation is not.
RITE later posted the redacted pages, showing extensive blackouts across the two-page file. Riemer said the request falls under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which includes a public-access provision for voter registration records.
On Tuesday, Riemer sent a letter demanding that the county provide a version with only legally permissible redactions. He gave the board a December 1, 2025, deadline and warned that litigation could follow.
In the letter, he wrote that if the county continues to withhold information beyond narrow NVRA exceptions, his clients will issue a formal notice of violation and, if needed, sue in federal court after the statutory waiting period, seeking attorneys’ fees and costs.
Riemer said he has not yet received a response and believes county officials may be consulting the state elections board and the attorney general.
He also noted that RITE previously sued Maryland over similar public-access restrictions and won earlier this year — which he says should have put the county on notice.
Fox News Digital contacted Prince George’s County’s Board of Elections for comment Friday but did not receive an immediate reply.
Riemer framed the conflict as part of a broader debate over non-citizens appearing on voter rolls, rejecting claims that such concerns are exaggerated.
“We know it happens in the thousands,” he said, pointing to past reports in Oregon of non-citizens being registered through DMV processes.
Federal officials say Roberts is now in U.S. Marshals’ custody and will face prosecution. DHS has outlined a long criminal history dating back to the 1990s, including narcotics and vehicle-related charges, later weapons-related cases, and more recent firearm convictions in Pennsylvania. DHS also says that during his September arrest, Roberts tried to flee and was found with cash, a Glock 9mm pistol, and a hunting knife. He was charged on October 2 with being an undocumented immigrant in possession of firearms.
Following his arrest, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked Roberts’ license, barring him from serving as a superintendent in the state.
