Mark Meadows spread Trump’s voter fraud claims. Now his voting record is under scrutiny

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff who helped former President Donald Trump spread false claims of voter fraud in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, is facing questions about his own voting record, following a report that he registered to vote from a North Carolina mobile home where he did not live.

There’s no indication that Meadows, a former congressman from North Carolina, ever resided — or even spent the night — at the rural mountain home, according to The New Yorker, which first reported on the residence that Meadows listed on his 2020 voter registration.

While it’s not unusual for politicians to maintain residency in their home states, even as they spend most of their time in Washington, Meadows’ arrangement stood out for its timing and details. Meadows claimed the modest mobile home with a rusted roof as his residence at the same time that he was running day-to-day operations at the White House and was frequently warning of the possibility of voter fraud.

Neither Meadows nor his wife, Debra, responded to calls or messages Tuesday. Meadows’ spokesperson, Ben Williamson, also did not respond to calls or messages.

North Carolina voter registration records show that Meadows and his wife registered to vote at the three-bedroom mobile home in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina, six weeks before the 2020 election. Records show that he voted absentee by mail from that address and that Debra Meadows voted early, in person.

Mark Meadows’s exact connection to the home is unclear. He never owned it. On a voter registration application submitted Sept. 19, 2020, Meadows stated that he intended to move in the following day.

North Carolina law requires that a voter live at their address for 30 days before the election in which they are voting. It is a felony to file a fraudulent voter registration application, although prosecutions are rare and typically do not lead to jail sentences.

Only a registered voter from Macon County, which includes Scaly Mountain along the Georgia border, can file a challenge to Meadows’ voter registration. Patrick Gannon, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Board of Elections, said Tuesday that there have been no voter challenges filed against Meadows.

Before and after the 2020 election, Meadows was among the foremost amplifiers of Trump’s false claims of election fraud. During an August 2020 interview on CNN, he warned of fraud in voting by mail and said people are able to register to vote in multiple places at once, leading to fraud.

“Anytime you move, you’ll change your driver’s license, but you don’t call up and say, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m re-registering,’ ” Meadows said.

Voters are not required to notify a state’s election officials about a move. Meadows, in fact, is currently registered in both North Carolina and Virginia.

Virginia voter registration forms obtained by The New York Times show that nearly a year after registering at the mountain mobile home, on Sept. 13 and Sept. 15, 2021, Mark and Debra Meadows registered to vote at a condominium in the Old Town neighborhood of suburban Alexandria, Virginia. Property records show that the Meadows purchased the unit in July 2017.

The couple voted early in person in Virginia’s heated election for governor in 2021, Virginia election records show. In that contest, Glenn Youngkin became the first Republican elected governor of Virginia in 12 years.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Mark Meadows served as a revolving door between Trump and an array of lawyers, supporters and conspiracy theorists who aimed to overturn the election results to keep Trump in the White House. He introduced Trump to Mark Martin, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice who told the then-president, falsely, that Vice President Mike Pence could stop the congressional certification of the Electoral College results.

In January 2021, Meadows facilitated the call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “to find 11,780 votes” to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

During Trump’s presidency, several members of his White House inner circle, including Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, an on-again-off-again adviser, were registered to vote in two states. There was no evidence that any of them voted twice in the same election.

At the time he registered to vote in Scaly Mountain, Mark Meadows was said to be considering running for the Senate seat to be vacated after the 2022 election by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. Shortly after the 2020 election, Meadows said he would not run for the Senate.

The owner of the home when Mark Meadows registered there told The New Yorker that Debra Meadows reserved it for two months sometime in the past few years, but stayed at the home for just one or two nights. Mark Meadows never visited, the former homeowner, who asked that her name not be used, told the magazine.

The former homeowner did not respond to messages. The current owner, who bought the property in 2021, also did not respond to messages.

A neighbor, Tammy Talley, told the magazine that she is a friend of the couple’s and that Debra Meadows and her adult children stayed at the home on at least one occasion. A message left at Talley’s home was not returned Tuesday.

Two weeks after Mark Meadows registered to vote at the Scaly Mountain address, his wife submitted an absentee ballot request on his behalf. Mark Meadows’ absentee ballot request was first reported by WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Before he registered to vote at the Scaly Mountain home, Mark Meadows had voted in 2018 from a home in Transylvania County, North Carolina, and in 2016 from Asheville, North Carolina, according to North Carolina records.