Dems cry foul in undecided N.C. race
By Mike Lillis - 12/05/18 08:14 PM EST
House Democrats are ramping up pressure on Republicans to investigate allegations of voter fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, one of the last midterm races that’s still undecided.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who sits on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Wednesday urged outgoing Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to hold an emergency hearing to probe voting “irregularities†identified by the local board of elections.
With less than a month remaining in the 115th Congress, GOP leaders are not expected to comply with Connolly’s request. But the public entreaty shows that Democrats have no plans to let the issue fade into obscurity, not least because President Trump and Republicans have long warned that voter fraud poses a threat to the integrity of elections — while tapping that threat as a reason for states to pass tougher voting laws opposed by most Democrats.
That history hasn’t been overlooked by Connolly, who accused Republicans of dismissing the issue when confronted with allegations that such fraud may have benefitted a GOP candidate.
“While the Republican majority is once again chasing conspiracies, real election fraud is playing out right before us in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District,†Connolly said in a statement. “We should see every action they take to ignore this situation for what it is — a slap in the face to all voters in North Carolina who participated in the 2018 election with the expectation that every vote would be counted.â€
Connolly called on Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor who’s retiring at the end of this Congress, to hold a hearing “so that we can shed light and understand what happened in this race.â€
Gowdy’s committee office declined to comment on the record.
Republican Mark Harris enjoys a 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready in the red-leaning 9th District. But a number of voters have emerged in recent weeks with sworn claims that their absentee ballots were collected by canvassers — a practice that’s prohibited in the state.
On top of that, several people have said they were paid by a GOP operative with a history of fraud to collect those absentee ballots illegally. And a sharp discrepancy in one county between the number of absentee requests and the absentee tally has fueled suspicions of foul play.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/419965-dems-cry-foul-in-undecided-nc-race
