A former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, possibly violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican party’s intense focus on “election integrity”.

Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate hoping to unseat the Democratic representative Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s presidential campaign in the pivotal early voting state.

Four months later, after Christie’s campaign fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey’s Republican presidential primary, using his parents’ address to re-register in his home state, documents the Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.

The case comes amid increased scrutiny on racial disparities in punishment for voting crimes. While there is not comprehensive data on those punishments, there have been high-profile cases in recent years where Black people who unknowingly violated voting laws were sentenced to years in prison. Several white defendants who appear to have committed intentional fraud in 2020 received probation.

Legal experts say Mowers’ actions could violate a federal law that prohibits “voting more than once” in “any general, special, or primary election”. That includes casting a ballot in separate jurisdictions “for an election to the same candidacy or office”. It also puts Mowers, who was a senior adviser in Donald Trump’s administration and later held a state department post, in an awkward spot at a time when much of his party has embraced the former president’s lies about a stolen 2020 election and has pushed for restrictive new election laws.

The issue could have particular resonance in New Hampshire, where Republicans have long advocated for tighter voting rules to prevent short-term residents, namely college students, from participating in its first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Trump claimed falsely that people were bussed in from out of state to vote in New Hampshire in 2016.

“What he has done is cast a vote in two different states for the election of a president, which on the face of it looks like he’s violated federal law,” said David Schultz, a professor at the University of Minnesota law school who specializes in election law. “You get one bite at the voting apple.”

Mowers’ campaign declined to make him available for an interview. In a brief statement that did not address the double-voting, campaign spokesperson John Corbett cited Mowers’ work for Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“Matt was proud to work for President Trump as the GOP establishment was working to undermine his nomination,” Corbett said. “Matt moved for work and was able to participate in the primary in support of President Trump and serve as a delegate at a critical time for the Republican Party and country.”

There is little chance Mowers could face prosecution. The statute of limitations has lapsed, and there is no record of anyone being prosecuted under this specific section of federal election law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the issue.

A separate New Hampshire law prohibits double-voting in two different states, but makes an exception if someone “legitimately moved his or her domicile”.

Mowers is just the latest former Trump administration official to draw scrutiny for possibly violating voting laws.

Mark Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman who served as Trump’s chief of staff, was registered in two states and listed a mobile home he did not own – and may never have visited – as his legal residence weeks before casting a ballot in the 2020 election. North Carolina state officials are investigating.

Not everyone agrees Mowers’ double-voting is a clearcut case of voter fraud. For starters, it’s an undeveloped area of law. Any court would have to contend with complicated issues such as whether a primary could be viewed as a public election or as an event held by a private organization that is administered with government help.“With the right set of facts, it could be construed as a violation, but it’s just not at all obvious to me that it is,” said Steven Huefner, an Ohio State University law school professor who specializes in election law. “It is a pretty murky question.”

Charlie Spies, a longtime Republican election lawyer who contacted the AP at the request of Mowers’ campaign, called the matter “silly”. He said the double-voting was “at worst a gray area” of the law and “not the sort of issue anybody would spend time on”.

Three Black voters recently have faced harsh punishment for voting errors.

Earlier this year, Pamela Moses, a 44-year-old Black woman in Memphis, was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote in 2019 while she was still on probation for a felony. A probation officer and the local clerk signed off on a form saying she was eligible to vote. Even though Moses did not sign the form, prosecutors argued she knew she was ineligible. Moses, who says she didn’t know she was ineligible, was granted a new trial in February in part because prosecutors failed to turn over evidence to her defense.

In 2018, Crystal Mason, a Black woman in Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. The ballot was rejected because Mason was on probation for a felony offense. Even though Mason said she did not know she was ineligible, and probation officials said they never told her she couldn’t vote, a judge found her guilty of illegally voting anyway. Her case is being appealed.

Last year, Hervis Rogers, who is Black, was arrested for voting in a primary in Houston while still serving a felony sentence. He also says he didn’t know he couldn’t vote and is awaiting trial. He could face several years in prison.

The New Hampshire congressional primary race has drawn a half-dozen Republican candidates. Among them is former Trump White House assistant press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has already attacked Mowers for being soft on the issue of “election integrity”.

In September, after Mowers said President Joe Biden rightfully won the 2020 election, Leavitt said Mowers “rolled over and sided with Joe Biden and the Democrats by refusing to stand for election integrity”.

Mowers’ campaign called her criticism “fake news” at the time.

His own campaign website has leaned in on the issue, featuring a section dedicated to “election integrity”. It states that new rules are needed to “provide every American citizen with the certainty that their vote counts”.