North Carolina will hold a new election for its 9th Congressional district after a unanimous vote by the state board of elections earlier today.
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The board came to a decision hours after the testimony of Mark Harris, the Republican nominee.
โI believe a new election should be called,โ Harris said during the hearing Thursday. The board of elections will hammer out the details of the do-over election at a meeting to be held later. Due to a law recently passed by North Carolinaโs Republican-controlled legislature, any and all candidates seeking to run in the coming election will have to compete in a primary election.
State republicans thanked the state board and said they will do their best to prevent instances of potential fraud.
Wednesday, Harrisโ son testified that he raised concerns about his fatherโs use of McCrae Dowless, a โshady political operativeโ who sought to join his campaign.
In 2017, John Harris told his fatherโs campaign consultant, Andy Yates: โIโve heard about this McCrae guy, seems to me he might be kind of a shady character.โ Yates testified he couldnโt recall any conversation fitting Harrisโ recollection. In April of last year, Harris sent an email to his father reiterating his distrust of Dowless. โThe key thing that I am fairly certain they do that is illegal is that they collect the completed absentee ballots and mail them all at once,โ Harris wrote. โThe way they pop up in batches at the board of elections makes me believe that.โ
Harris, who was introduced to Dowless by former district court Judge Marion Warren, hired Dowless to handle campaign duties anyway.
Thursday, the elder Harris acknowledged the prescient nature of his correspondence with his son. โSitting here four days into this meeting ... my son was a bit prophetic in his statement that day,โ Harris said of his sonโs warnings concerning Dowlessโ ballot scheme.
Dan McCready, the Democratic candidate who lost the district by 905 votes amid concerns over potential voter fraud, tweeted his support for the unanimous decision. โThe people deserved justice,โ he said. โToday was a great step forward for Democracy in North Carolina.โ
North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin released a statement supporting the boardโs ruling. Goodwin and state democrats maintain that eveidence presented at the four-day hearing makes clear Harrisโ involvement in the voter fraud operation beyond his previous disclosure.
โOver an extraordinary four-day hearing, investigators laid out point-by-point how Republican Mark Harrisโ campaign funded and directed an elaborate, illegal scheme to steal an election,โ Goodwin wrote. โThis saga could only have ended in a new election, and we look forward to repairing the harm dealt by Republicans and giving the people of the Ninth district the representative they deserve.โ
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