N.C. election board votes to hold a new election
RALEIGH, N.C. — After a stunning reversal by Republican candidate Mark Harris, North Carolina election officials Thursday unanimously ordered a new election in the 9th Congressional District, which has gained national attention as the last unresolved House race for the 2018 election.
Its vote came after four days of testimony about what election officials called “a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme” in Bladen and Robeson counties. And less than an hour after a startling announcement by Harris, who had been fighting to have his apparent victory certified.
“I believe a new election should be called,” Harris told the board, citing testimony he’d heard during the week. “It’s become clear to me the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”
Harris spent the morning answering questions about his relationship with Bladen County political operative McCrae Dowless. But his attorney stopped the queries after Harris repeatedly denied telling anyone that emails between he and his son John would not be part of evidence. When Harris returned after a nearly two-hour break, he admitted that testimony was incorrect.
“Though I thought I was ready to undergo the rigors of this hearing and am getting stronger, clearly I am not and I struggled this morning with both recall and confusion,” said Harris, who was hospitalized for a severe infection in January and said he suffered two strokes during that time. Harris returned to Charlotte on Wednesday night for treatment. “Neither I nor any of the leadership in my campaign were aware of or condone the improper activities that have been testified to.”
Harris then left the witness stand and the hearing room. As he walked away from reporters, his wife Beth put her arm around his back and rubbed it. They disappeared down the hallway in the North Carolina State Bar building.
“That’s a pretty good indication of where Dr. Harris understood things were going to go from there,” said Marc Elais, attorney for Democrat Dan McCready.
And with that the drama surrounding the disputed race was all but over.
“Bombshell after bombshell this week, and this was nuclear,” said Michael Bitzer,
a Catawba County political scientist.
In the months since the election, Harris — who led the unofficial vote tally by 905 votes over McCready — had maintained he was unaware of any absentee ballot fraud and insinuated there was a plot to deny him a seat in Congress. The state Republican Party and its officers also stood behind him and demanded he be certified the race winner.
At a Feb. 9 meeting of the North Carolina GOP executive committee, Harris said, “The Democrats and liberal media have spared no expense disparaging my good name” and blamed “a liberal activist” on the Board of Elections for the whole episode. He called the absentee ballot-harvesting allegations “unsubstantiated slandering,” according to a video of that meeting posted online.
At Thursday’s hearing, Harris attorney David Freedman concluded “we agree that the actions that occurred in Bladen County likely affected the election.”
The state board will set dates for a new election in the district. New state law requires a primary election, though legal challenges are expected. It is not certain whether Harris will run again. McCready already has raised more than $500,000 toward a new election.
“From the moment the first vote was stolen in North Carolina, from the moment the first voice was silenced by election fraud, the people have deserved justice,” McCready said in a statement Thursday. “Today was a great step forward for democracy in North Carolina.”
In a statement, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said the board’s vote “sends a strong message that election fraud must not be tolerated.”