CONCORD, NH (AP) – A former member of the Trump administration who is now running against Congress in New Hampshire twice voted in the 2016 primary election season, possibly violating federal voting law and leaving it to the opposition. Republican Party’s Strong Focus on “Elections in Good Faith”.
Republican Party leader Matt Mowers is a prime ministerial candidate who plans to overthrow it as Democratic Congressman Chris Papas, absentee vote in the 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary, has revealed voting records. Moers at the time was serving as presidential campaign director for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in Early Voting.
Four months after the failure of Christie’s proposal, Mowers re -voted in the presidential election of the Republic of New Jersey, re -registering in his home state using his parents ’address, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press seeking documents. public.
Law experts say Mowers’ actions may violate federal law, which prohibits “multiple voting” in “any general, special or primary election.” This includes voting in separate jurisdictions to “select the same candidate or position”. It also humiliated Moers, who was a senior adviser to the Donald Trump administration and later held the position of State Department, at a time when most of his party was carrying the former president’s lies about the stolen election in 2020. and the pushing for the introduction of new restrictive electoral laws.
“What he did was vote for a president in two different states, which at first glance appears to be a violation of federal law,” said David Schultz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in law. Election law. “You’ll be bitten for the polling apple.”
Mowers’ campaign denied him access to the interview. In a brief statement that did not respond to double voting, campaign spokesman John Corbett cited Morse code work in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“He’s more proud of working for President Trump because the GOP establishment is working to weaken his appointment,” Corbett said. “He worked harder and was able to run as president in support of President Trump and serve as a delegate at a critical time for the Republican Party and the country.”
There is little chance that Moers should be charged. The statute of limitations has expired and there is no record of anyone being prosecuted under this particular section of federal electoral law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures overseeing the matter.
A separate law in New Hampshire prohibits double voting in two different states, but makes an exception if a person is “lawfully moved.”
Mowers is the latest Trump administration official to investigate potential violations of voting laws.
Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as Trump’s chief of staff, registered in two states and listed a mobile home he didn’t own – and may not have visited – in the weeks before the 2020 election. .They are state officers of the North Carolina Investigates.
Not everyone agrees that Mowers ’double vote is a clear case of election fraud. To begin with, this is an undeveloped field of law. Any court will face difficult questions such as whether the primary can be considered a public election or an event organized by a private organization administered with government assistance.
“With the right set of facts, this can be construed as a violation, but it’s not at all obvious to me that it is,” said Stephen Huffner, a professor at the Ohio State University School of Law who specializes in electoral law. . “It’s a pretty vague question.”
Charlie Spacey, a longtime Republican election lawyer who contacted the PA at the request of the Mowers campaign, called the issue “stupid.” He said double voting was a “worst case scenario gray spot” and “it’s not a question of time spent”.
It may not matter in the primary Congress with half a dozen Republican candidates. Among them is Carolyn Levitt, a former adjutant of Trump’s White House spokeswoman who has already attacked Mowers for her softness of “electoral good faith”.
In September, after Mauers declared President Joe Biden a fair winner in the 2020 election, Levitt said that “Mauers moved and supported Joe Biden and the Democrats, who refuse to defend the integrity of the election.”
Mowers ’campaign at the time called his criticisms“ fake news ”.
Its campaign website is based on the issue, which includes a section on “electoral integrity.” He said the new rules are needed to “ensure every American citizen that their vote counts.”
He also emulated long -standing Republican criticism of out -of -state voters and supported the state legislature’s efforts to ensure that “only the legal population of New Hampshire has the right to vote.”
It wasn’t the first Mowers vote in the 1930s that became the Republican Party’s primary target in the midterm election in 2022. In 2020, he won Trump’s support and won the Republican nomination before losing 5 percentage points. against the Pope.
However, this time it may be different. Biden’s approval ratings. Republicans raised their prospects. And thanks to redesigning congressional districts once every decade, Republicans who now control the state legislature and the governor’s office are willing to pass more favorable maps.
Mowers makes life in New Hampshire easier for him with his wife and child. But he is not a resident of the state, spending most of his life in New Jersey.
A graduate of Rutgers, he worked in New Jersey politics under the supervision of Christie’s governor as well as campaigning for Christie’s re -election. This led to the appearance of the 2016 trial at Bridget Gate, where Moers testified about failed attempts to support Christie for a Democratic mayor, which resulted in revenge and, ultimately, two convictions by Christie’s close allies. . The reapers pleaded guilty to the case.
He moved to New Hampshire in 2013 to serve as executive director of the State Republican Party. He continued work at Christie’s in 2015 to lay the foundation for the presidential campaign.
After running for the Christie White House, Moers returned to New Jersey to work at a lobbying company, Mercury. He joined Trump’s campaign in July 2016 and later moved to Washington after sitting in the administration.
It launched its first tender in Congress after leaving the White House.
Slodisko reported from Washington.
Source: Huffpost
