On Tuesday, The Charlotte Observer editorial board ripped into former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows following reports that he voted in 2020 using the address of a mobile home in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, that he never actually lived in or even visited — a possible violation of state election law.
"Remember the voter fraud that Republicans were so eager to uncover after the 2020 election? Well, it may have been right under their noses all along," wrote the board. "Meadows’ wife and kids rented the mobile home and stayed there briefly while visiting the area for a Trump rally, the report says, but there’s no evidence to suggest Meadows ever spent any time there. According to both the current and former owners, who were interviewed by The New Yorker, Meadows has never slept nor received any mail at the property."
Meadows was one of the biggest promoters of former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the election had been stolen with irregularities and voter fraud, trying to help overturn elections in states Joe Biden won, pressuring the Justice Department to investigate baseless conspiracies about mail-in ballots and even a bizarre claim that Italy used satellites to hack into U.S. voting machines.
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"Why would Meadows register to vote at a mountain property he seems to have never even set foot in? Why would he wage a fight against voter fraud, an enemy that doesn’t actually exist, all while knowing that he committed it himself? And did he genuinely think he could get away with it?" wrote the board. "Those are all questions that Meadows needs to answer, and it’s going to be tough for him to explain. Others have been arrested and even imprisoned for honest mistakes that resulted in illegal voting, including a Black woman from Wake County who voted while on probation in 2016, not knowing it wasn’t allowed."
"Lying, on the other hand, is hardly an honest mistake," concluded the board. "As a former elected official and top-ranking member of the White House staff, Meadows has no excuse for not knowing the law, and despite his power and influence, he is not above it. As with any instance of potential voter fraud, the North Carolina State Board of Elections should investigate it. And if it’s found that Meadows did fraudulently register for and vote in an election, he ought to bear the consequences of doing so."
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