New election ordered during a North Carolina race at the Center of Fraud Inquiry

RALEIGH, NC – The North Carolina electoral authorities on Thursday ordered a new contest for Congress in the state's ninth district after the Republican nominee, faced with evidence indicating that his campaign was backing an illegal effort. abandoning the vote, abandoned his defense and called for a new vote.

The unanimous decision of the North Carolina Elections Council was a surprising turn – and, for the Republicans, embarrassing – in a case of political quarreling that convulsed North Carolina.

"It has become clear to me that public confidence in the ninth district general election has been undermined to such an extent that a new election is warranted," said Republican candidate Mark Harris, at the helm of witnesses Thursday afternoon.

Harris's announcement constituted a brutal collapse of Republican efforts to avoid a new vote on the ninth round, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina. But the evangelical pastor's political abandonment came only after 24 hours, damaging to Mr. Harris and his allies; Just before Mr. Harris called for a new election, he acknowledged that some of his previous testimony was "incorrect".

Although Mr. Harris testified Thursday that he did not know in real time any illegal behavior of L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a campaign contractor, or his workers, this week's witnesses described a transaction. who had misbehaved, including the completion and collection of the ballots by correspondence. Both actions are illegal in North Carolina and witnesses claimed that they had occurred multiple times.

Mr. Dowless, who refused to testify before the commission, was not charged with any crime in connection with the election of 2018, nor did his employees, often friends or relatives, Having little ideological interest in politics. Prosecutors are however reviewing the operation and considering the possibility of initiating criminal proceedings.

The decision of the North Carolina Board of Directors will leave the ninth district in an extended limbo state: already the site of the last unstable home race of last year, the district is about to remain unrepresented in Congress for at least several months. It was unclear whether Mr. Harris, who had 905 votes in advance of his Democratic rival, Dan McCready, in last year's election, would choose to run for the new election.