If Republicans are truly interested in finding all those election irregularities they’re obsessed with, they’d better start looking at themselves.

The latest member of the GOP mired in voter fraud accusations is former President Trump’s aide Matt Mowers, who held a senior role in the State Department and is now running for Congress in New Hampshire. Mowers took it upon himself to vote in two states during the 2016 presidential primaries.

According to the Associated Press, during the time Mowers worked as director of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, he voted via absentee ballot in New Hampshire. But just a few months later, after Christie’s run began to stall, Mowers re-registered in New Jersey using his parents’ East Brunswick home address.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice indicates that it is “reviewing the matter” regarding Matt Mowers voting in two states during the 2016 presidential primaries. 

On June 7, nearly two weeks after candidate Trump received the Republican Party nomination and weeks after casting that New Hampshire absentee ballot, Mowers voted in New Jersey, AP reports.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) defines “double voting” as “voting more than once “in the same election” and says that states prohibit it. But that’s not really as clear as you’d assume.

“Double voting is often listed as a felony in states, and can come with hefty fines or jail time. Although statistics show it to be rare, it is also difficult to identify and difficult to prosecute when it does occur,” the NCSL writes about whether or not double voting is a crime.

In New Hampshire, it is illegal to vote in two states, but according to AP, an exemption can be used if a voter “legitimately moved his or her domicile.”

That said, in Mowers’ case, it’s the irony and hypocrisy that really stand out.

Gail Huff Brown, spouse of Republican Sen. Scott Brown and former television host, is running in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District against Mowers. Brown told the New Jersey Globe that “The Republican Party is the party of election integrity, and we cannot nominate someone who has engaged in voter fraud and expect to be taken seriously on the topic. … We can do better.”

That we can all agree on. We should do better. So, why do Republicans continue to play hard and fast with the voting rules?

On Sep. 19, 2020, about three weeks before North Carolina’s voter registration deadline for the general election, Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, claimed to be living in a 14-foot by 62-foot mobile home in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina. The trouble is, it doesn’t appear to be true. Now Meadows is being investigated by authorities in North Carolina for possible fraud.

“The allegations, in this case, involve potential crimes committed by a government official,” Macon County District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch wrote in a letter to the attorney general’s office.

According to the North Carolina Board of Elections, on Oct. 26, Debbie Meadows, Mark Meadows’ wife, showed up at the Macon County community building in Franklin, North Carolina, and filled out a one-stop voter application for early voting in the 2020 presidential election, claiming to live in the Scaly Mountain mobile home. The problem was … she didn’t.

North Carolina state law outlines that in order to vote in that state you must reside in the claimed address for at least 30 days prior to the election. Debbie must not have read the top of the voter form, which clearly states that “fraudulently or falsely completing this form is a Class I felony under Chapter 163 of the NC general statutes.”

But the outrageous part is that not only are GOP candidates continuing the falsehood of the Big Lie, but they’re using it to undermine Democrats’ legitimate wins.

Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is battling former opponent John James after James refused to concede his loss to Peters, The Detroit News reports. James’ camp is claiming voting integrity issues in the election​.

“It’s sad and it’s pathetic. They lost,” Peters told the press.  “It’s very clear. Just count the votes. I understand Mr. James has been running for four years, he’s lost twice now. I understand that doesn’t sit well with him.”

James told The Detroit News he is launching an investigation into the election so voters can believe it was “fair and honest,” and only after the investigation has been completed  will he “accept the results and the will of the people.”

One has to wonder if the Meadows or Mower will get the same treatment as so many others do—especially if they happen to be Black.

As I reported in February, Pamela Moses, 44, was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. Moses, a longtime Black Lives Matter activist in Memphis, Tennessee, told The Guardian that what happened to her was a straight-up “scare tactic” designed to keep her—and people who look like her—from voting.

In 2019, Lanisha Diresha Bratcher Jones was charged with felony voter fraud.

After serving time for a felony offense, she was out on probation when she tried to vote in 2016. She learned then that under North Carolina regulations, as a convicted felon, she wasn’t allowed to vote. However, she hadn’t been informed of that when she registered.

“I had no intention to trick anybody or be malicious or any kind of way,” she told The Guardian. “If you expect us to know that we should know we should not do something, then we should not be on the list or even allowed to do it.”

Mowers is hoping to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in the 2022 GOP primaries.

Republished with permission from Daily Kos.