[ad_1]
Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, a Democratic member of the government's oversight and government reform committee, said in a statement that "real electoral fraud is taking place before us" in the 9th district of North Carolina.
"The votes were stolen by attacking old and minority voters, and now a cloud of doubt and suspicion hangs over the results of this election," he said.
The call for a Congressional inquiry comes as the North Carolina Election Council and local officials investigate the possibility that a man working for Republican candidate Mark Harris's campaign – who has got 905 votes more than Democrat Dan McCready in the race – used the absentee ballots to change the vote in Bladen County.
The Harris campaign denied any knowledge of potentially illegal behavior that would have occurred on his behalf.
Wake County Attorney, Lorrin Freeman, to whom the Bladen County Attorney asked to investigate in January on allegations of election fraud in 2016, told CNN Wednesday that his office and the North Carolina State Investigation Bureau were investigating whether mail-in ballots were used to change the vote in three 9th district elections, including the primary and general elections in North Carolina. 2018.
"Have ballot papers been put to the vote, perhaps not voted by the person whose name was submitted to them?" been submitted appropriately? "Freeman said, describing the parameters of the investigation.
Investigators investigate whether Leslie McCrae Dowless, a long-time agent in Bladen County who worked for a Harris campaign consultant, and a group of loosely connected people gathered unsealed correspondence ballots, marked them for their candidate, sealed them and signed as a witness. North Carolina requires witnesses to sign absentee ballots. Usually, these witnesses are family members or friends and the ballots are not supposed to be manipulated by a third party.
They are also investigating the possibility of ballot papers being collected in areas considered favorable to McCready but never returned. 19659002] The North Carolina Elections Council is also studying the issue and will have to determine in the next few weeks whether Harris should be chosen as the winner or whether to take the extraordinary step by ordering new elections.
The members of the elections committee – consisting of four Democrats, four Republicans and one nominated without a party – are cautious about the possibility of a new election.
"Personally, this is not a decision I want to make lightly, I want to be careful," said Damon Circosta, a non-partisan board member.
He says he is "confident that we are taking all nine seriously", highlighting the unanimous votes of last week for not certifying the election results.
The Charlotte Observer, the largest state newspaper, called for a new election in an editorial on Wednesday.
"Voters in the 9th District deserve to be assured that their election is free of fraud, the law of North Carolina supports it, and the evidence is already demanding it. the election, "writes the editorial board of the newspaper.
History of Dowless in Bladen County
The investigation is centered on Dowless, a 62-year-old veteran from Bladen County who pleaded guilty to fraud with respect to Criminal Assurances in 1992.
Campaign Financial records show that Dowless has received more than US $ 23,000 in six election campaigns over the past eight years. In most of these races, his candidate has obtained a disproportionate number of postal votes in his home country.
Harris's campaign raised more than $ 400,000 from GOP Red Dome Group during the 2018 campaign – and Red Dome paid to Dowless.
The Bladen County GOP also paid $ 940 to Dowless, which they said was meant to get the vote out.
Dowless did not return CNN's requests for comment. He denied wrongdoing to The Charlotte Observer
The Bladen County Archives show that Dowless personally filed 592 of the 1,341 postal ballot applications registered in Bladen County in the 2018 general election. Mail ballots were finally deposited in the county.
Dowless has a long history of working for candidates who have achieved much better results with respect to postal votes in Bladen County than in the aggregate.
In 2010, Harold "Butch" Pope, who paid $ 6,700 to Dowless, won 81% of the votes cast by an absent vote, but only 26% of the votes cast outside of Bladen County .
In 2012, House of States candidate Ken Waddell, who paid Dowless more than $ 6,800, won 55% of the vote in Bladen County and only 42% of the vote outside the county. .
In 2016, Todd Johnson, a Republican who had paid nearly $ 6,500 to Dowless for standing against Rep. Robert Pittenger at a primary, had won 221 of 226 polls held by voters absent in the district, even as Johnson finished third. Johnson did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.
This year Harris won 437 postal ballots in Bladen County, compared with 17 for Pittenger in the Republican primary poll, although no allegation of falsification of ballots was reported in this course. Harris won 420 votes in the general election in Bladen County against 258 for McCready.
Majlie de Puy Kamp and Madeleine Ayer of CNN contributed to this report.
[ad_2]Source link
