On Friday, New Jersey’s Observer-Tribune reported that the Morris County Republican Party would be filing a lawsuit contesting the results of a November 8 election in which one of Mendham Township’s Republican committeemen, Tom Baio, lost his reelection bid by just three votes to his Democratic challenger, Lauren Spirig, in the GOP-dominant suburb 30 miles from New York City.

They claim approximately 29 Spirig voters in the election—all young Democrats—improperly voted by mail from their residences outside of the state, including the local Democratic Party chairwoman’s daughter, a recent college graduate who is currently a Tennessee resident.

What local GOP officials did not initially mention, however, was that one of the ballots cast belonged to Baio’s daughter, New York City journalist Ariana Baio, whose ballot Baio himself had mailed to her earlier this year.

“Like many parents driven by a sense of duty, we were wrong to advance the [vote-by-mail ballot] to my daughter, Ariana,” he told the newspaper. “My daughter did answer the call of duty and did vote by the mail-in ballot.

“We all need to correct this behavior,” he added. “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 behavior. I know I will.”

Newsweek has contacted Baio and his daughter for comment.

Family disagreements over a close relative’s politics are nothing new. This past election cycle, more than a dozen relatives of Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt announced they would be endorsing his opponent, while Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker faced attacks from his own son on the campaign trail.

Prior to that, controversial Arizona Republican Paul Gosar has faced numerous appeals from his siblings urging his constituents to vote for someone other than him. But instances of a family member seeking to invalidate a relative’s vote—particularly one they encouraged—with their race on the line is exceedingly abnormal.

It’s also murky how the impropriety was even discovered. As of this writing, it’s unclear how Republican officials identified who voted from outside of the township, or whether they utilized their personal knowledge of local residents to identify where voters lived.

A search of public records Friday afternoon also failed to produce a copy of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the head of the local elections office was not in the office when Newsweek called Friday afternoon.

However, Morris County Republican Committee Chair Laura Ali told the Observer-Tribune she believed there was “at least one” provisional ballot filed by a Republican that they believed was questionable rejected alongside what she described as “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.”

Newsweek has contacted the Morris County GOP for comment.

But a worker at the Morris County Board of Elections told Newsweek the process of evaluating ballots typically falls to the superintendent of elections as well as the four-member Board of Election Commissioners, which consists of two Republicans and two Democrats appointed by their respective parties.

Notably, that group has already voted to certify the results of the election.

Local Democrats, meanwhile, are expressing disappointment over a fight they say is fracturing their community for political gain.

“We’ve never had a recount in a Mendham Township election, let alone this type of divisiveness,” Morris County Democratic Chair Amalia Duarte told the newspaper. “Local and county Republican operatives are trying to pit neighbor against neighbor.”

Spirig, meanwhile, announced on Facebook that she and others would be gathering at a special meeting of the township committee on Tuesday, December 20, writing they were “deeply disturbed by this attempt at disenfranchisement.”