Letter: Congress may resolve disputed N Carolina election

RALEIGH, N.C. >> A U.S. House member signaled Friday that Congress may ultimately resolve the nation’s last undecided congressional race.

The head of the House Administration Committee, Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California, asked North Carolina elections officials to preserve all original notes, recordings or documents used in investigating allegations of ballot fraud in the state’s 9th District. The U.S. House may also investigate and ultimately determine the rightful winner of the disputed seat, Lofgren wrote to the state elections board’s executive director.

“The Committee is acutely aware of its responsibilities and rights concerning the eventual seating of House Members in disputed or vacant seats,” Lofgren wrote in a letter released Friday by the North Carolina elections board.

“Accordingly, it is of the utmost importance that the Board and all parties handling such evidence preserve and protect said material for future inspection by the House, this Committee, and its designated agents.”

Sworn statements by voters and other witnesses have suggested mail-in ballots could have been altered or discarded.

Republican Mark Harris holds a narrow lead over Democrat Dan McCready. A winner hasn’t been declared pending investigations into an unusually large number of absentee ballots that were requested and never returned, as well as the large advantage Harris has among absentee votes in two of the district’s rural counties, Bladen and Robeson.

Bladen County Elections Board Chairman Bobby Ludlum said in a sworn affidavit released Friday that several absentee ballot request forms dropped off ahead of November’s general election were forged. The three forged forms were among 165 requests for mail-in ballots delivered by a woman the Republican election official didn’t name.

“One of the three was for a relative of mine who told me that two women had asked if he wanted to request a form. He said no,” said Ludlum’s affidavit, which was released by an attorney for Harris’s campaign.