Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff who has echoed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, is being investigated in North Carolina over his voter registration.
Key points:
- Authorities are investigating claims Mr Meadows was registered to vote at an address he did not reside at, own or visit
- North Carolina voters must live in the county they are registering and resided there for at least 30 days prior to an election
- Mr Meadows is also the subject of contempt charges by a congressional committee investigating the US Capitol riot
North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) is investigating Mr Meadows’s voter registration in response to claims he registered to vote in September 2020 at an address he did not reside at, own or visit.
“We have asked the SBI to investigate and at the conclusion of the investigation, we’ll review their findings,” a spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Justice Special Prosecutions Section said.
In North Carolina, voters must live in the county where they are registering and have resided there for at least 30 days before the election date, according to the state elections board website.
The New Yorker magazine first reported the voter registration allegations earlier this month.
The magazine, quoting the director of the Macon County Board of Elections, said Mr Meadows was registered at an address in the county and voted absentee in the 2020 general election.
Mr Meadows is currently registered to vote at the same North Carolina address, according to the state elections board’s online database.
He is also the subject of contempt charges by a congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, in which Mr Trump and his supporters sought to stop the certification of now-President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Reuters sought comment from Mr Meadows at the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organisation that helps elect conservatives to office where Mr Meadows now serves as a partner, but was unable to immediately reach him.
Mr Meadows represented North Carolina in US Congress from 2013 until joining Mr Trump’s administration in 2020.
ABC/wires