On Wednesday, we learned that North Carolina’s State Board of Elections voted unanimously to NOT certify the results of the NC-09 Congressional Race, won by Republican Mark Harris over Democrat Dan McReady , by a razor thin margin, of 905 results.Despite some cryptic comments, no one seemed to know why. Well today, we have some more details, and man are things about to get interesting.
As the Charlotte Observer reports, the reason has to do with voting irregularities in Bladen county. Like all congressional districts, the 9th is hopelessly gerrymandered, and runs from southeast Mecklenburg county to Fayetteville, and Bladen county is a small, rural county in the southeast corner of the state. Harris, a Baptist Minister and Neanderthal, with some shall we say rather traditional views on women, eeked out his win by racking up big margins in rural counties, and won Bladen county, by 1,507 votes,capturing 57% of the vote, which wasn’t unexpected.
What was unexpected, is the unusually high number of absentee ballots cast in Bladen county, which had the highest of absentee ballot requests in the state, at 7.5%. Virtually every other county was below 3%. In every other county in the district, the mailed in absentee ballots broke heavily for McReady… but not Bladen… Harris won 61% of the mailed-in absentee ballots. This means that Harris would have to win virtually every single ballot cast by unaffiliated voters… something that doesn't pass the smell test.
There’s more: The Observer story goes on to detail voter accounts, of people collecting unsigned absentee ballots, and the potential involvement of a consultant to the Harris campaign, McRae Dowless. On Friday the State Board again refused to certify the results by a vote of 7-2, with another meeting scheduled for December 21. Of course whether this meeting takes place is very much an open question, as the Board has been ruled unconstitutional, and an emergency stay allowing the board to operate expires on Monday. Buckle up folks… things are about to get very interesting