Maine Senate hopeful Troy Jackson dismissed voter ID at the polls while flipping through a hulking binder of notes in his first debate with Sen. Susan Collins, a stance at odds with broad public backing for basic election safeguards.
Troy Jackson, the Democratic challenger and former Maine state Senate president, came out against voter ID requirements to combat electoral fraud during Tuesday’s opening debate with Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the New York Post reported.
The former logger argued the step was unnecessary. Collins answered that only Americans should cast ballots in American elections.
Jackson also kept a thick white binder close at hand, glancing at notes for his opening statement and for issues he expected to face, including Collins’ past support for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The exchange marked the first of four scheduled debates in the Maine Senate race.
Maine Democrats tapped Jackson for the contest against the longtime incumbent, putting election rules and legislative effectiveness at the center of an early faceoff.
Pressed on a simpler ID requirement at the polls, Jackson said no.
He told the audience he had voted without identification many times while working as a logger.
"No, as a working logger, many times I went to the polls without my ID,"
Jackson added that noncitizens are already barred from voting and called further measures needless.
"It’s already the law,"
Collins pushed back directly on eligibility.
"Only Americans should vote in American elections. I don’t think that’s too much to ask."
A Pew Research survey last year found 83% of respondents backed voter ID. Democrats have long contended that citizenship proof and related rules burden ordinary voters. President Trump made the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, a top priority this year; the bill would require proof of citizenship to vote and has stalled in the Senate.
That fight sits alongside other high-stakes Senate work, including moments when the Senate scrambled on voter ID legislation before recess.
Jackson’s claim that existing bans are enough collides with recent state-level failures. Over the summer, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill revealed that some 400 noncitizens cast ballots illegally since 2023 after they were wrongly added to the voter rolls.
The episode shows how registration errors can put illegal votes into the system even when the law already forbids noncitizens from voting. Collins framed the core demand in plain terms: American elections for American citizens.
Jackson’s preparation was hard to miss. He ruffled through the large binder repeatedly, including during his opening and when the Kavanaugh confirmation vote came up.
Collins brought a small folder and referenced notes only a couple of times. The candidates are expected to go without notes in Thursday’s debate, according to what the Post has been told.
The visual contrast landed as clearly as the policy clash: one candidate leaned on a stack of prepared pages while defending the status quo on ID; the other kept the paperwork light and the eligibility standard simple.
Collins used her prepared question to focus on Jackson’s long tenure in the Maine Legislature. She noted his more than 20 years there and the fate of his bills in committee.
"In your more than 20 years in the legislature, more than one third of your bills were unanimously rejected in committee,"
She continued that he could not secure even one Democrat on committee for a third of those measures, then tied the record to the job he now seeks.
"If you can’t find one person in your own party to vote for your bills when you were the Senate president in Maine, how do you think you’re going to get things done in a closely divided Senate as the most junior senator?"
Senate Republicans amplified the exchange on X, posting video of Collins calling out what they termed Jackson’s ineffective record in Augusta.
Collins has broken with her party before on major confirmation fights, including when Collins announced she would vote against Todd Blanche for attorney general, a reminder that Senate margins and individual records both matter in a divided chamber.
Jackson used his one question to challenge Collins over her 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He pressed her to concede error.
"What will it take for you to admit you are ever wrong?"
Collins has long defended that confirmation vote. Jackson’s choice to spend his question on a seven-year-old Supreme Court fight left less room to answer the legislative-effectiveness critique she had just delivered.
Similar narrow-margin dynamics have surfaced when other Republicans peeled away on nominees, as when Murkowski’s announced opposition narrowed the GOP margin on the same attorney general fight.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first of four. The next comes Thursday, with the note-free expectation still unconfirmed by a named source. The policy line is already drawn.
Jackson says current law is sufficient and treats ID checks as an unneeded hurdle for working people. Collins says citizenship and basic verification are minimum conditions for a lawful election. Public polling at 83% for voter ID sits with Collins on the core question; the New Jersey roll errors show how “already illegal” does not always mean “already stopped.”
Jackson’s binder and his resistance to ID both stayed on full display. Voters can decide which approach belongs in a closely divided Senate.
Election rules that ask citizens to prove they belong on the roll are not a burden, they are the floor. Candidates who wave that away while paging through prepared talking points are telling Mainers exactly how lightly they take the count.
