North Carolina voter fraud: New election ordered after Republican operatives ‘illegally collected ballots’

An operative working for the Republican is said to have hired workers to harvest ballots in an illegal door-to-door operation in two counties

Clark Mindock
New York
Thursday 21 February 2019 22:33 GMT
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A new vote has been ordered in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District after the republican in the race admitted his lead over his democratic opponent was tainted by ballot-tampering conducted by operatives working for is campaign.

The new vote was approved unanimously by the state's board of elections on Thursday after several days of evidentiary hearings in which witnesses said that operatives hired by the campaign of Mark Harris conducted illegal door-to-door ballot harvesting in violation of state law.

Mr Harris, who had previously pushed back on the notion that his victory came as a result of any voter fraud, agreed on Thursday that his 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready may have been impacted by that tampering. He urged the board to approve a new election, which has not been given a date.

"Through the testimony I listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Mr Harris told the board on Thursday. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted."

His democratic opponent cheered the board's decision on Twitter.

“Today was a great step forward for democracy in North Carolina,” Mr McCready wrote. He continued, calling for justice for voters “from the moment the first voice was silenced by election fraud.”

The board’s decision could mean that the seat — which is the last to be decided in the state from the 2018 midterm elections — could be left open for months. The attorney for the election board is preparing to review laws for new primaries and a general election, and will then submit a plan to the board for final approval.

There were about 280,000 votes cast in November in the district, which includes several counties and the city of Charlotte.

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The state has refused to certify the original results, which put Mr Harris ahead by 905 votes, noting that a political operative working for Mr Harris, Leslie McCrae Dowless, may have tampered with mail-in ballots.

Mr Harris has claimed he was not aware of the ballot harvesting at the time.

No criminal charges have been filed so far in the case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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