No, I didn’t jump on the Matt Mowers story right away – too many things in the hopper – but even as the news gets a bit stale, time can hand you a great juxtaposition.
Reformatted, emphasis mine:
SHOT: Mowers defends voting twice in the 2016 primary elections
Republican primary opponents pounced Tuesday on 1st Congressional District candidate Matt Mowers after voting records showed he voted in two different states during the 2016 presidential primary cycle…
Election records show Mowers, state director of 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie’s campaign, voted in the New Hampshire primary by absentee ballot in February 2016…
Mowers left the state and returned to his native New Jersey, gave his parents’ address to register to vote there in March and then voted for Donald Trump in New Jersey’s presidential primary on June 7.
Federal law bars voting more than once in any election, including in separate states for the same contest like a presidential primary, but the statute of limitations for voter fraud is five years, which has run out in this case.
CHASER: Sanbornton man, 79, gets suspended jail sentence for voting twice in 2018 election
A 79-year-old Sanbornton man received a suspended jail sentence and a fine after pleading guilty on Wednesday in Belknap County Superior Court to a felony for voting in more than one state in the 2018 election. Edward Amirault, Sr., who also has a home in Weymouth, Mass., voted in New Hampshire by absentee ballot in September, 2018, and later cast a ballot in Massachusetts in the same election, according to a news release from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
Authorities said Amirault “knowingly” voted in both places. As a consequence of his conviction, his right to vote in New Hampshire was terminated, the news release said. Amirault was sentenced to 180 days at the Belknap County House of Corrections, suspended for two years on the condition of good behavior. The court also ordered Amirault to pay a $4,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.
Two men and just two years apart. Same crime – twice voting in two different states. The only differences are two:
- One in 2016, one in 2018
- One is well known and connected and one is an ordinary schlub
Related: NH Issues Arrest Warrant for Another Double Voter
Of course, there’s the Statute of Limitations – which saves Mowers by two years. Amazing how that little number, two, keeps shining brightly. From the same story:
“My opponent @mowers potentially violated election law and he is hiding behind his attorney, calling the report ‘silly,’” said [Karoline] Leavitt, who served in Trump’s White House communications office. “This is a very, very serious allegation. Election integrity matters. Voters deserves truth and @mowers owes them an honest answer.”
It is. Voter Fraud has been a big issue with the base and little tidbits of information of such actions, while turned away by the courts thus far, are really starting to add up into an entire picture.
Related: Double-Voting UNH Student Admits Guilt – Loses “Right” to Vote in New Hampshire
While the crime is nullified by that Statute of Limitations, Mowers admits he voted twice. But his own words in trying to answer show yet another bad set of optics in my mind:
“I was proud to work for President Trump as the GOP establishment was working to undermine his nomination and accepted a job with his campaign in 2016, registered to vote and casted my vote in accordance with the law, and served as an elected Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention,” Mowers said in his statement.
“I was proud to be part of the historic effort to prevent Hillary Clinton from re-entering the White House, and we shouldn’t be surprised she’s joined in smearing my record.”
Just answer the dang allegation and stop with the deflections and chest-puffing about what you were doing. Drop the Trump references as if that’s a shield against recrimination and the Hillary reference as blunderbuss (translation: “look at that a good guy I am”). People hate that sort of thing.Related:
Ed Naile Gets His Man: NH AG Arrests Michael LaSean Lewis for Illegally Voting in New Hampshire
And NH State Ross Berry, in trying to defend Mowers, inadvertently brings up the argument of Democrat political operatives that we on the Right keep kvetching about: Drive-by Voting:
“Being young and mobile is not a crime in New Hampshire and the fact is he had a lease at the time and had clearly established an intention to stay in the Granite State for the foreseeable future means that he easily met the requirements to cast a ballot in our elections,” said state Rep. Ross Berry, R-Manchester.
The Mowers campaign said the candidate moved to take a job with Trump’s campaign and ended up as a full-time national field coordinator and director of battleground states working at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Most of the Democrat operatives that the late Ed Naile caught (and we put up on the pages of GraniteGrok) did exactly the same thing – took advantage of the “domicile vs residency” issue that allows those with hardly any ties to NH to vote in our elections and then skip town to yet another candidate (or advocacy group to wait for that next candidate) – and make a mockery of our insane and inane laws that basically say that anyone, including Vladimir Putin, could come to NH, say the magic words, vote, and go back to his underground bunker in Moscow (yes, I’m stealing that last bit from someone; don’t know who but I’m stealing it).
If it is wrong on the Left, it is also wrong on the Right.
Now, I’m not calling for Mowers to withdraw from the race. I have every right to do so – but I’m not. Instead, we all should be watching what he does and figure out how he does his political calculus from this and his end goal. Will he or won’t he?
And what will voters do if he stays in? And within the Republican Party, it may well be quite interesting (and perhaps very maddening to some) how the GOPe (Establishment Republicans who believe in “Republican Republicans for the sake of the Republican Party”) versus the Conservative wing (Liberty and Freedom folks) vote for or against him.
However, I will leave this as an admonishment:
The Tennessee Star picked up something that I had written at the very end of this post:
If the NH Republican Party wants to win, and win Consistently, act like you believe in the Platform. Speak like you do and at each and every turn. Vote like you do at each and every opportunity. And Legislate like there’s no tomorrow because two days ago was that “no more tomorrow” – and you blew it
It’s another way to combine two of my favorite memes”
- Consistency breeds Trust which yields Votes
- Winning is only a precursor; what you do afterwards is more important
Now apply all that to this instance – how would you decide if you were voting right now?
