A Republican lawmaker is trying to get his daughter's ballot thrown out after she voted for his rival in a neck and neck election.
Tom Baio, a committeeman in Mendham Township, New Jersey, US, lost his re-election bid to his Democratic challenger Lauren Spirig by just three votes.
The local Republican group claimed in a statement that some of the absentee ballots cast by mail failed to meet state residency requirements, among them the vote cast by Baio's daughter.
The group have said they will file a lawsuit contesting the result, reports Observer-Tribune.
The Republican's daughter Ariana Baio is a New York journalist who Baio said voted for the Democrat candidate.
In the statement from Morris County Republicans, Committee Chair Laura Ali said there was "at least one provisional ballot filed by a Republican voter that was questionably rejected," reports
She also noted "a large and growing number of vote-by-mail ballots filed by Democrat voters who do not appear to meet the residency requirement for voting in Mendham Township."
Tom Baio said: "Like many parents driven by a sense of duty, we were wrong to advance the VBM [vote-by-mail ballot] to my daughter, Ariana.
"My daughter did answer the call of duty and did vote by the mail-in ballot."
"We all need to correct this behaviour. As parents, and as citizens of towns as great as Mendham, I call on all Mendham residents next year to heed this example. As shameful as it is, we need to correct this behaviour. I know I will."
Although the statement from the Republicans did not mention Tom Baio's daughter, it did allege that one of the young voters who did not meet the residency requirement was the daughter of Morris County Democratic Chair and Mendham Township Committeewoman Amalia Duarte.
Hitting back at the Republicans' claims, Duarte said her daughter was being singled out and called on her rival to concede.
"We've never had a recount in a Mendham Township election, let alone this type of divisiveness," she said. "Local and county Republican operatives are trying to pit neighbour against neighbour."
A committeeman is a term used in the US for a local political party leader of a ward or precinct.
