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Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
25,829
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/21/6965...t-out-operative-accused-of-illegal-ballot-sch
After months of insisting he knew of no illegal activity being done on behalf of his campaign, Republican Mark Harris, who leads the race for North Carolina's 9th congressional district, called Thursday for the State Board of Elections to hold a new election.

"Through the testimony I've listened to over the past three days I believe a new election should be called. It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted," said Harris.
It was a dramatic and humbling reversal for Harris, a pastor who until now has insisted that the board of elections should certify his 905 vote lead in the unofficial tally so that he can go off to Congress.

Four days of hearings had left that position increasingly untenable as witnesses detailed how an operative hired by Harris illegally handled absentee ballots, a felony in North Carolina. One witness said she filled in unmarked sections of ballots. Harris' own son testified on Wednesday that he had warned his father that the operative's tactics were likely illegal.
An email first released to the public on Thursday shows that Harris requested to the operative, McRae Dowless, in March 2017 after losing a primary election in which one of his opponents had hired Dowless.

The disclosure by the Harris campaign frustrated investigators, who were presented with the evidence only on Wednesday, despite a subpoena from the North Carolina State Board of Elections for the relevant documents months ago.
Although Harris has now called for a new election, the board will have to decide whether to actually call one. After Election Day, Harris held a 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready in the unofficial ballot tally. The board declined to certify those results pending its investigation into an absentee ballot scheme that investigators have been unspooling for months.

The investigation focuses on Dowless, who was hired by Harris to run get-out-the-vote efforts in Bladen and Robeson counties. Dowless was also investigated in 2016 for his tactics, which a number of witnesses have testified included illegally collecting absentee ballots and filling out some of those ballots.

Edit:
North Carolina elections board votes for new election in congressional race
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/21/politics/mark-harris-son-north-carolina-9th-district-hearing/
The North Carolina Board of Elections voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of holding a new election in Congressional District 9 after an investigation into election irregularities.
Mark Harris, the Republican leading in the contested 9th District race, said Thursday a new election should be called. He told a state board Thursday he does not condone the activities that have come to light after testimony this week and he feels that the public's confidence in the process is shaken.
 
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Earthstrike

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,232
If an actual tally of the results would result in the democrat winning, then there should be no reelection.

Edit: Yes, He should also go to jail.
 
Last edited:
Oct 27, 2017
4,432
Do we know, fully, his role and knowledge in hiring the operative? The son knew shit was shady, how long before election was that?

Seems to me if he had any knowledge and didnt report, or in any way encouraged, he should be in jail for life.
 

Casualcore

Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,300
If an actual tally of the results would result in the democrat winning, then there should be no reelection.

It's a question of what an actual tally is. The GOP's side has testified that they filled out unsealed ballots in the GOP's favor. How would you know what to count as a real vote and what was done in the back of a car after illegally taking it from a confused voter? Do you strike all absentee ballots and disenfranchise thousands? Were the ballots the GOP's staff had access to somehow segregated and not mixed in with the rest? I doubt it.
 

VariantX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,879
Columbia, SC
WTF, at least get a new GOP candidate?!? Dude straight up cheated, got caught, and now wants a do-over so he can cheat less sloppily than he did last time?? This fucking planet some times.
 

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
WTF, at least get a new GOP candidate?!? Dude straight up cheated, got caught, and now wants a do-over so he can cheat less sloppily than he did last time?? This fucking planet some times.
Sounds like they will. The revote includes a new primary to select candidates for both parties
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
115,484
They should do a new election and prohibit him from being a damn candidate. This controversy is his fault, he shouldn't get to be on the run-off.
 

ISOM

Banned
Nov 6, 2017
2,684
The people who tampered should be in jail and anyone who had knowledge of it.
 

Earthstrike

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,232
It's a question of what an actual tally is. The GOP's side has testified that they filled out unsealed ballots in the GOP's favor. How would you know what to count as a real vote and what was done in the back of a car after illegally taking it from a confused voter? Do you strike all absentee ballots and disenfranchise thousands? Were the ballots the GOP's staff had access to somehow segregated and not mixed in with the rest? I doubt it.

It would depend on whether or not they had a method to safely count how many "illegitimate votes" there were. If we had a way of finding out how many people handed in an unfilled ballot and compared that to actual totals it could be possible.
 

Nacho

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,108
NYC
If an actual tally of the results would result in the democrat winning, then there should be no reelection.
Uh, if he paid someone to commit election fraud he should be in jail before either declaring the results for the next highest winner or a new election. Either way though, this guy should be in jail before anything else is even considered.
 

Earthstrike

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,232
Uh, if he paid someone to commit election fraud he should be in jail before either declaring the results for the next highest winner or a new election. Either way though, this guy should be in jail before anything else is even considered.

I don't disagree that this type of election fraud should send you to jail. This man should be in jail for sure.
 

cameron

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
23,807
There needs to be charges. People need to go to prison.

Bit from NYT:
Although Mr. Harris maintained on Thursday that he did not know, in real-time, about any illegal behavior by L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a campaign contractor, or his workers, witnesses this week depicted an operation that was rife with misconduct, including the completion and collection of absentee ballots. Both actions are illegal in North Carolina, and witnesses said that they had occurred repeatedly.
Mr. Dowless, who refused to testify before the board, has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the 2018 election, nor have any of his workers, who were often friends or relatives with little ideological interest in politics. Prosecutors are examining the operation, though, and are considering whether to bring any criminal cases.
And bit from AP:

Harris said he was still struggling from health problems caused by a blood infection that landed him in a hospital and led to two strokes. Harris said he was suffering from confusion but that he could see there were substantial doubts about fairness and that a new election is necessary.
Harris made the surprising reversal after his lawyers argued in recent legal filings to the board that he should be certified the winner.
 

Christian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,636
And bit from AP:

Harris said he was still struggling from health problems caused by a blood infection that landed him in a hospital and led to two strokes. Harris said he was suffering from confusion but that he could see there were substantial doubts about fairness and that a new election is necessary.
Harris made the surprising reversal after his lawyers argued in recent legal filings to the board that he should be certified the winner.


Seems like he's in perfect health to determine the fates and fortunes of hundreds of millions of people!
 

Bramblebutt

Banned
Jan 11, 2018
1,858
Do we know, fully, his role and knowledge in hiring the operative? The son knew shit was shady, how long before election was that?

Seems to me if he had any knowledge and didnt report, or in any way encouraged, he should be in jail for life.

Harris texted an associate, saying he was interested in hiring the man who perpetrated the absentee ballot fraud, specifically because he thought his "absentee ballot project" would swing the primary and then general election in his favor. About a month later, Harris' son extensively warned his father that the work Dowless was doing was illegal. The information that Harris knew who Dowless was and SPECIFICALLY hired him was concealed from the court until after Harris' son's testimony, essentially disregarding the Court's subpoena until the information became impossible to conceal.

Edit: for context, the text in question was sent in March of 2017 and his son's warnings were made in April of 2017, more than a year prior to both the primary and general elections.
 
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Oct 27, 2017
4,432
Harris texted an associate, saying he was interested in hiring the man who perpetrated the absentee ballot fraud, specifically because he thought his "absentee ballot project" would swing the primary and then general election in his favor. About a month later, Harris' son extensively warned his father that the work Dowless was doing was illegal. The information that Harris knew who Dowless was and SPECIFICALLY hired him was concealed from the court until after Harris' son's testimony, essentially disregarding the Court's subpoena until the information became impossible to conceal.

Edit: for context, the text in question was sent in March of 2017 and his son's warnings were made in April of 2017, more than a year prior to both the primary and general elections.

Holy shit that sounds way worse than I was thinking.

How is he not locked up???
 

Elandyll

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
8,806
His own son testified against Harris that he told him (like he didn't know) that the operative's actions were likely illegal, and he is still allowed on the ballot?
The guy should be in jail...
 

cameron

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
23,807
POTUS:

Jackie Calmes @jackiekcalmes

Trump, on why he hasn't condemned GOP fraud in NC: "I condemn any election fraud & when I look at what's happened in CA with the votes...There was just a case where they found a million fraudulent votes."

Reporter: "There haven't been those cases. This is an actual case, sir."

5:07 PM - Feb 22, 2019

Twitter Video:



CNN Chyron:

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

This CNN chyron completely misses the point. Trump dismissed North Carolina election fraud, he didn't really "condemn" it. pic.twitter.com/vdQVAj6apg

d0czc0uwoauwzlz9mj34.jpg


3:43 PM - Feb 22, 2019
 

Wraith

Member
Jun 28, 2018
8,892
Bathroom bill sponsor leads GOP field in NC election re-do
Nine Republicans filed by Friday's deadline to run for their party's nomination in the 9th Congressional District special election. They include the sponsor of a 2016 state law limiting LGBT rights, the anointed choice of last year's GOP candidate, a Fayetteville medical products sales manager, two suburban Charlotte real estate agents and a former Marine who served on the county board that includes Charlotte.

They have two months to raise money and campaign while Dan McCready, the Democrat who seemed to narrowly lose November's election before it was voided, can meet with supporters and donors without a primary contest. He raised $487,000 at the end of 2018 while the result was in doubt.
The best-known Republican candidate is probably state Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte, the architect of one of the most controversial laws in recent state history. House Bill 2 repealed a Charlotte ordinance expanding LGBT rights and prevented similar anti-discrimination rules anywhere else in the state. A 2017 Associated Press analysis found the law will cost the state more than $3.76 billion over several years.
 

ShyMel

Moderator
Oct 31, 2017
3,483
"I think the people of North Carolina, they put that controversy behind them and they're ready to move on," Bishop said after filing as a candidate Thursday. "It did the state no good to have that controversy, but it's an exhausted issue. And as I said, everyone understands where I stand. But we're on to a new campaign and new issues."
"I do not want to lose the BB&T/SunTrust merger and other potential deals/events after everything we lost the first time."
 

Moist_Owlet

Banned
Dec 26, 2017
4,148
Funny (by which I mean infuriating) how the GOP ignore this and yet bitch about early voting and voter ID laws while gutting voting rights. Fuck this party, fuck their supporters, and fuck anyone who protects them. This fucker should be in jail.
 

Nude_Tayne

Member
Jan 8, 2018
3,666
earth
They're hypocritical assholes, so I'm not surprised.
It's not just hypocrisy, it's projection. It's about gaslighting and projecting an alternate reality to cover their own ass, and they've got it down to a science. They whine about voting fraud they can't produce actual evidence of while committing election crimes right under our noses, not to mention suspiciously opposing any kind of voting security, and it's something that's actually debated whether or not these things should be investigated, the fraudulent elections be re-held, and the Republican perpetrators of these election crimes go to jail.