LUMBERTON — The Republican chairman of the Robeson County Board of Election does not believe claims of voter fraud in the race for the District 9 seat of the U.S. House will lead to a new election. But others aren’t so sure.
“It’s expensive and logistically tough to have a new election in the 9th District,” Steve Stone said.
Whether it’s one election or multiple elections, the cost is going to be as much as $50,000 or more for Robeson County, he said.
“Which is an extreme burden on the county’s residents,” Stone said.
The investigation by the N.C. State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement is focused on claims that fraudulent absentee ballots were cast in the race between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready for the District 9 seat. Joshua Malcolm, a Robeson County attorney, is chairman of the nine-member board.
Specifically there are allegations in Bladen County that absentee ballots were illegally stacked in favor of Harris. The state Elections Board, with Malcolm raising questions, did not certify the results. It also didn’t certify the results of the Bladen County Commissioner District 3 and in Robeson County the District Court 16B Seat 2 race between Republican Jack Moody and Democrat Vanessa Burton.
Moody led after Election Day, but Burton wiped out his lead after absentees and provisional ballots were counted. Local Republicans point out that absentee ballots mostly favored Democrats, including Burton, in Robeson County, and the problems in Bladen didn’t leak into this county.
The Robesonian has tried multiple times to speak with Burton without success, and Moody has indicated he does not want to comment.
“If the congressional race is tainted enough that the BOE requests a redo, then the judicial race is definitely in line for a redo,” said Phillip Stephens, Robeson County Republican Party chairman. “Then you have to consider if the other elections were affected as well as how could they not be affected if the top of the ticket was affected. Saying the top of the ticket was adversely affected enough to alter an outcome has or may have a cascade effect.”
Unofficial ballot totals showed Harris ahead of McCready by 905 votes in District 9. According to the state Elections Board website, Harris received 73,752 absentee votes, one-stop and mail-in, and McCready received a total of 81,084. McCready won Robeson County by 17,003 votes to Harris’ 12,543 and Libertarian candidate Jeff Scott’s 757.
McCready rescinded his concession on Thursday. The Democrat conceded after Election Day that Harris had won.
The judicial race between Moody, who works in the Public Defender’s Office, and Burton, an assistant prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office, remained contested after the polls closed on Nov. 6. Initial counts showed Moody to be the victor by 138 votes. He led by 77 votes after absentee ballots were counted. Moody’s lead became a 71-vote deficit after provisional, or challenged, ballots were counted on Nov. 15.
There is little chance as many voters who cast ballots on Nov. 6 would vote if new elections are held, Stone said. If so, fewer people would be deciding the victors, particularly in the District 9 race.
“And the House leadership is not going to let that happen,” he said.
If the District 9 race is not certified by the state board, the leaders of the U.S. House can select either Harris or McCready to fill the seat, Stone said.
“The House did something similar in 1985. But it is not likely that would happen,” Dallas Woodhouse, North Carolina Republican Party executive director, wrote in an email.
Jamie Bowers, a spokesman for outgoing District 9 incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger, said he isn’t sure if House leaders can chose a winner in the case of an uncertified race. It is his understanding that Pittenger’s staff can be authorized to remain working until a winner is declared so constituent services can continue uninterrupted.
“We are not ready to call for a new election, yet, until the NCSBE completes the investigation or produces enough evidence that the votes/ballots in question would have changed the result or a substantial likelihood thereof,” N.C. Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes wrote in a statement. “Should that happen, the law would require a new election, which we will not oppose.”
Hayes went on to say the state Republican Party had no knowledge of and did not participate in the absentee ballot operations under investigation. He said the state Republican Party believes these allegations should be fully investigated, and both Republicans and Democrats need to be held accountable for any voter fraud.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the House “retains the right to decide who is seated.”
Pelosi said “any member-elect can object to the seating and the swearing-in of another member-elect.” It’s not about the one House seat, it’s about the “integrity of elections,” she said.
Pelosi has been nominated to be speaker of the House when the Democrats take control in January.
In North Carolina there has arisen a call by state lawmakers for an investigation of voter fraud.
A press release issued Thursday the office of Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger reads in part, “Sens. Dan Bishop (R-Mecklenburg), Tommy Tucker (R-Union), and Paul Newton (R-Cabarrus) today called on Governor Roy Cooper to establish an independent, bipartisan task force to investigate absentee ballot irregularities spanning multiple election cycles, including the 2016 gubernatorial election.”
