Politics - News Analysis

Well Looky Here: It Appears Mark Meadows’ Wife Filed at Least Three False Voter Forms

Donald Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is being investigated for alleged voter fraud, and now it looks like he may have company: His wife Debbie purportedly filed two (and possibly three( false voter forms in the 2020 presidential election, The Washington Post reports.

Perhaps they were doing it in the spirit of keeping things in the family.

Mark Meadows is currently under the microscope in North Carolina, where officials are probing potential fraud charges, Salon reports. And, according to The New Yorker, Trump’s former top aide was registered to vote at a mobile home in a remote rural area, where, it would appear, he’s never even set foot in. All while he was spreading and supporting Trump’s false claims about widespread voter fraud during the election.

The North Carolina attorney general’s office reports that the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Board of Elections are taking a closer look because Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welsh, formerly a crony of Meadows, referred the case to the state for “potential prosecution.”

While the attorney general’s message didn’t mention Debbie Meadows, it’s beginning to look like she used the address of the Scaly Mountain home on three different voter forms. According to documents provided to The Post by the North Carolina Board of Elections, it appears that Debbie Meadows listed the mobile home as her home address on a one-stop voter form so she could cast an early ballot in the 2020 presidential election in Franklin, North Carolina. But this form requires voters to certify that they have lived at their address for at least 30 days. It warns that “fraudulently or falsely completing this form” is a class 1 felony.

But c’mon here. We’re talking about former Trump administration members here. What’s a little felony among friends?

Apparently, Debbie Meadows also dropped off an absentee ballot she’d requested for dear ol’ hubby. At least that’s according to one election board official who spoke to The Post. In total, she signed three forms that each bore a warning about the legal consequences of providing false information: the one-stop application, the absentee ballot request for her husband, and the voter form listed above by The New Yorker.

State officials didn’t say whether they would include Debbie Meadows in their probe of Mark Meadows.

“We are early into the investigation,” Anjanette Grube, a spokesperson for the State Bureau of Investigation told The Post. “As the investigation continues, information will be shared with the prosecutor who will make a determination as to whether any additional persons could be subject to the investigation.”

Salon notes that the voter registration form mandates that voters enter the residential address “where you physically live” under “penalty of perjury.” Meadows and his wife entered the address of the Scaly Mountain, which is interesting, because according to the former owner of the home, Debbie Meadows only stayed there for a night or two, while Mark Meadows had never stayed at all.

Melanie Thibault, director of Macon County’s Board of Elections told The New Yorker she was completely “dumbfounded” after discovering what address the Meadowses’ had used after selling their North Carolina home when Meadows was tapped to work in the Trump administration.

“I looked up this McConnell Road, which is in Scaly Mountain, and I found out it was a dive trailer in the middle of nowhere, which I do not see him or his wife staying in,” she said.

Under North Carolina law, voters are required to live in a county where they register for at least 30 days before the election. But it looks like both Meadows potentially played things a bit fast and loose here. Both of their voter registration forms were filed on September 19, 2020, but the couple listed their move-in date as the following day, September 20. (That’s also considered a violation, but it’s one that’s not likely to be followed up on, Salon reports.)

This is my jumping-off point. The Salon report is a good one and contains far more information than I can really include here unless I were to write an encyclopedia.

Are Meadows and his wife going to be charged with voter fraud? Your guess is as good as mine, but it would certainly come as a relief to many of us if they were. This reminds me of the old saying “you get what you pay for.” I hope that’s the case here.

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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