Mark Meadows, who quit his North Carolina congressional seat to become former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff in March 2020, registered to vote for the 2020 election using the address of a rural North Carolina mobile home he never lived in and, according to its former owner, never slept at, North Carolina's WRAL reported Monday night. Meadows voted by mail from Alexandria, Virginia, in 2020, but he is still registered at the rental home in Scaly Mountain.
Registering using a residence you have never stayed at constitutes voter fraud in North Carolina and providing false information on your voter registration form is a federal crime, The New Yorker reports. North Carolina's registration form tells voters they must list the place "where you physically live," and notes it is a Class I felony to "fraudulently or falsely" complete the form, WRAL adds. Class I felonies can result in prison sentences of up to 12 months.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The owner who rented the vacation home to Meadows' wife, Debbie Reynolds, in 2020 told WRAL that Mark Meadows "never spent a night down there" and Debbie Reynolds only stayed for a night or two. The neighbor in Scaly Mountain, a friend of the Meadows and a Trump supporter, verified that information to The New Yorker.
The current owner, a Lowe's manager named Ken Abele, told The New Yorker it's "really weird" Meadows would list the property as his place of residence for election purposes, or even rent the house in the first place. "I've made a lot of improvements" since buying the mobile home in August 2021, he said. "But when I got it, it was not the kind of place you'd think the chief of staff of the president would be staying."
Meadows did not respond to request for comment from either The New Yorker or WRAL. The couple now owns a $1.6 million lakefront estate in South Carolina, and they will presumably update their voter registration forms to reflect that.
-
China’s single mothers are teaming upUnder the Radar To cope with money pressures and work commitments, single mums are sharing homes, bills and childcare
-
Employees are branching out rather than moving up with career minimalismThe explainer From career ladder to lily pad
-
‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
‘It is their greed and the pollution from their products that hurt consumers’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
GOP wins tight House race in red Tennessee districtSpeed Read Republicans maintained their advantage in the House
-
Trump targets ‘garbage’ Somalis ahead of ICE raidsSpeed Read The Department of Homeland Security will launch an immigration operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area
-
Hegseth blames ‘fog of war’ for potential war crimespeed read ‘I did not personally see survivors,’ Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting
-
‘It’s critical that Congress get involved’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Canada joins EU’s $170B SAFE defense fundspeed read This makes it the first non-European Union country in the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative
-
Appeals court disqualifies US Attorney Alina HabbaSpeed Read The former personal attorney to President Donald Trump has been unlawfully serving as US attorney for New Jersey, the ruling says
-
White House says admiral ordered potential war crimeSpeed Read The Trump administration claims Navy Vice Adm. Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley ordered a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat, not Pete Hegseth
