The Associated Press has retracted its call for Republican Mark Harris in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district over concerns of voter fraud:
The AP is retracting its call of a winner for U.S. House in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. The AP called the race for Republican Mark Harris on Nov. 9, after Democrat Dan McCready conceded. https://t.co/u3heS1YiJj
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 30, 2018
From the AP:
The North Carolina board of elections has delayed certifying the results, citing “claims of irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail voting.”
Harris responds:
Make no mistake, I support any efforts to investigate allegations of irregularities and/or voter fraud, as long as it is fair and focuses on all political parties. There is absolutely no public evidence that there are enough ballots in question to affect the outcome of this race.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNC9) November 30, 2018
Although his statement that “there are enough ballots in question to affect the outcome of this race” is being questioned:
This is simply not true; there ARE enough ballots in question in NC-9 to potentially affect the outcome. https://t.co/B6p9O7XEFr
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 30, 2018
At issue is the handling of absentee ballots by someone who worked for the Harris campaign:
this is bananas:
An individual who worked for the Harris campaign coordinated the effort to fill in, or discard, the ballots of Democratic voters who might have otherwise voted for McCready…affidavits come from elderly African-American voters. #NC09 https://t.co/M6ZUFZNPa7
— Ben Wessel (@BenWessel) November 30, 2018
And they’re looking at irregularities in both the general and primary elections:
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There's also a question of whether, if you were able to detect several hundred ballots' worth of fraud, there may have been other fraudulent activities that went undetected. People are just now noticing that there may have also been fraud in the GOP primary in NC-9, for instance.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 30, 2018
One of the remedies under NC law is a new election
NC statues also explicitly provide for a new election to be called if results are tainted by improprieties to the point where doubt is cast on the fairness of the election, even if it's not clear whether they swung the result. https://t.co/poE1obfQWQ pic.twitter.com/ydGDd9BvUk
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 30, 2018
Although it could get worse for Harris if any of this is true:
Finally, there's the question of whether Harris would face criminal liability, and either not seated in the House—"each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members"—or seated and then expelled.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 30, 2018
It's Republicans who are accused of voter fraud here in NC-9—possibly even widespread enough to have swung a House race or at least muddy it. Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Democrats accused instead? Would be all that Trump was talking about. https://t.co/5WikjE5TQW
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 30, 2018
I have no idea what to make of what's going on in NC-09. But there certainly do seem to be credible allegations of hinky stuff going on there on Mark Harris' side, not just in the general election but in the primary as well.
— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) November 30, 2018
What happens next is not really clear and the situation is fluid:
Countdown to "chaos" in North Carolina?
The NC elections board is investigating fraud in the Harris-McCready race …
… but may have to dissolve at 12am Tuesday morning to comply with a court order. #ncpol #ncga #NC9 https://t.co/08OaA3EvAo
— Andy Specht (@AndySpecht) November 30, 2018
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