Trump aide now running for House voted twice in ’16

CONCORD, N. H. — A former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, potentially violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican Party’s intense focus on “election integrity.”

Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign.

Four months later, after Christie’s bid fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey’s Republican presidential primary, using his parents’ address to re-register in his home state, documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.

Legal experts say Mowers’ actions could violate a federal law that prohibits “voting more than once” in “any general, special, or primary election.” That includes casting a ballot in separate jurisdictions “for an election to the same candidacy or office.”

Mowers’ campaign declined to make him available for an interview. In a brief statement that did not address the double-voting, campaign spokesman John Corbett cited Mowers’ work for Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“Matt was proud to work for President Trump as the GOP establishment was working to undermine his nomination,” Corbett said. “Matt moved for work and was able to participate in the primary in support of President Trump and serve as a delegate at a critical time for the Republican Party and country.”

The statute of limitations has lapsed and there is no record of anyone being prosecuted under this specific section of federal election law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the issue.

Mowers is just the latest former Trump administration official to draw scrutiny for potentially violating voting laws.

Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as Trump’s chief of staff, was registered in two states and listed a mobile home he did not own — and may never have visited — as his legal residence weeks before casting a ballot in the 2020 election. North Carolina state officials are investigating.

Not everyone agrees Mowers’ situation is a clear-cut case of voter fraud.

For starters, it’s an undeveloped area of law. Any court would have to contend with complicated issues such as whether a primary could be viewed as a public election or as an event held by a private organization that is administered with government help.

“With the right set of facts, it could be construed as a violation, but it’s just not at all obvious to me that it is,” said Steven Huefner, an Ohio State University law school professor who specializes in election law. “It is a pretty murky question.”

Charlie Spies, a Republican election lawyer who contacted the AP at the request of Mowers’ campaign, called the matter “silly.” He said the double-voting was “at worst a gray area” of the law and “not the sort of issue anybody would spend time on.”

That may not matter in a congressional primary that has drawn a half-dozen Republican candidates, some of whom stepped up their criticism of Mowers on Tuesday.

Karoline Leavitt, a former Trump White House assistant press secretary, said Mowers owed voters “an honest answer.” She said he “potentially violated election law and his initial reaction is to hide behind his attorney.”

State Rep. Tim Baxter jabbed at “Jersey Mowers” and said the double-vote was “the exact election fraud problem voters across America are sick of.”

Mowers promotes his time living in New Hampshire with his wife and young child. But he is not a native to the state, spending much of his life in New Jersey.