New Election Called In North Carolina House Race

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Updated at 5:16 p.m. ET

After months of insisting that 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.

Shortly afterward, the bipartisan state board voted unanimously to redo the only congressional race left from the 2018 midterm elections that remains undecided.

"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 had insisted that the elections board certify his 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready in the unofficial tally so that he could take a seat in 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 a meeting with the operative, McCrae 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.

A "shady character"

In December, the board declined to certify the results of the election. Instead it voted to open an investigation into an absentee ballot scheme that investigators have now been unspooling for months. Election board staff said that the investigation will continue even as preparations are made for a new race.

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.

Harris has said publicly since the investigation began in December that he was unaware of any illegal acts that may have been done on behalf of his campaign. He reiterated that in his testimony Thursday.

"He said we do not take the ballot," Harris said, describing what Dowless told him. " 'I don't care if it's a 95-year-old woman in a wheelchair. We do not take the ballots.' "

The email produced by the attorney representing Harris' campaign showed Harris reaching out to former judge Marion Warren about procuring Dowless' help. Dowless worked for another candidate, Todd Johnson, who nearly swept Bladen County's absentee ballot totals in 2016, and Harris refers to that victory in his email.

"On the other issue of your gracious offer to meet me in Bladen County and spend a day connecting me to the 'key people' that can help me carry that part of the county in a future US House NC-9 race," Harris wrote to Warren on March 8, 2017. "You know the political and financial connections better than anyone else I would know, including the guy whose absentee ballot project for Johnson could have put me in the US House this term, had I known, and he had been helping us."

But Harris' son, John Harris, testified Wednesday that he warned his father that he thought Dowless was a "shady character" who likely engaged in illegal practices as part of his operation.

John Harris says he reviewed the absentee ballot results of the 2016 race and concluded that Dowless was using illegal tactics to help Johnson. During Wednesday's hearing, John Harris said he warned his father about this but that Mark Harris still hired Dowless.

Mark Harris was pressed about those warnings Thursday.

"It was painfully clear that he was saying, 'Daddy, don't mess with this guy,' " said elections board member Jeff Carmon. "That was your son, with no ax to grind, that wanted to make sure you were protected."

Mark Harris said he never raised his son's concerns with Dowless.

He also said that he disregarded the warnings because his son was only 27 years old and had never been to Bladen County, whereas he had sat down with Dowless and had heard his guarantees that he wasn't mishandling ballots.

New election details

The elections board will hold a public hearing soon to decide the timing of the new election.

McCready, the Democrat who ran against Harris, said the decision Thursday was "a great step forward for democracy in North Carolina."

"From the moment the first vote was stolen in North Carolina, from the moment the first voice was silenced by election fraud, the people have deserved justice," McCready tweeted.

The new race won't be a rerun of last November's contest. There will be primary elections to determine each party's candidates and then a new general election, in accordance with North Carolina law.

A spokesperson for the State Board of Elections said the board will likely schedule the election to coincide with the special election needed to fill the vacancy of Rep. Walter Jones, who died this month.

North Carolina's governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, praised the board's decision to call a new election.

"People must have confidence that their vote matters and this action sends a strong message that election fraud must not be tolerated," said Cooper.</s>By Mr. Harris’s own account on the stand Thursday, it was his narrow defeat in the 2016 race that set a course toward the board’s decision. By March 2017, according to a text message turned over to investigators only on Wednesday, Mr. Harris was communicating with a political ally in Bladen County, a rural part of the district, about “the guy whose absentee ballot project for Johnson could have put me in the US House this term, had I known, and he had been helping us.”

“Johnson” was Todd Johnson, one of Mr. Harris’s rivals in the 2016 race, and “the guy” was Mr. Dowless, a Bladen County operative with a felony record and a reputation for shadowy work for Democratic and Republican politicians. Mr. Dowless and Mr. Harris met in a furniture showroom about a month later.

“How did you beat us so bad?” Mr. Harris said he had asked Mr. Dowless about the 2016 race. Mr. Dowless then explained a two-phase effort that concentrated on absentee ballots.

In the first phase, Mr. Harris testified, Mr. Dowless and his associates would help voters submit requests for absentee ballots — an ordinary and legal political activity in North Carolina. In the second, workers would ensure that voters had received the ballots and would inquire whether they needed assistance.

But under no circumstances, Mr. Harris was assured, were the workers to collect the ballots.

Two weeks after the meeting, Mr. Harris pulled out his personal checkbook and paid a $450 retainer. The next month, before Mr. Harris entered the congressional race, he paid Mr. Dowless another $2,890.

Mr. Dowless and his associates, who were often his acquaintances or relatives with little interest in politics but hoping for fast cash, went to work. 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. Prosecutors are examining the operation, though, and are considering whether to bring any criminal charges.</s>Republican candidate Mark Harris on Thursday called for new election in the North Carolina disputed House race.

Harris' request for a new election came after several days of a state Board of Elections hearing that is seeking to determine whether there was misconduct with mail-in ballots in the state's 9th congressional district. Harris testified Thursday morning that he had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activities of a political operative hired by his campaign.

This is a developing story; check back for updates.</s>(Reuters) - Republican Mark Harris asked North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday to order a new election in his congressional race, saying evidence from an investigation into possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the vote.

The request came as a surprise, as for months Harris had said he should be declared the victor in the 9th Congressional District after he led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6. Elections officials, however, had refused to certify him as the winner due to allegations of irregularities in the vote.

“Through the testimony I’ve listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh. “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.”

Harris’ request came on the fourth day of a hearing into whether his campaign benefited from what state investigators called illegal election manipulation by political consultant Leslie McCrae Dowless.

Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate’s behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.

But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.

Kim Strach, executive director of the state’s election board, earlier this week called the operation a “coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme.”

According to text messages Harris’ attorneys turned over to the board on Thursday, Harris sought a meeting with Dowless when he learned that Dowless had led a successful absentee ballot program for Republican candidate Todd Johnson during a 2016 congressional primary election.

In those messages to a Bladen County judge, Harris asked about “the guy whose absentee ballot project for Johnson could have put me in the US House this term, had I known, and he had been helping us.”

Harris campaign officials have said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless has maintained his innocence.</s>(Reuters) - North Carolina Republican Mark Harris asked the state’s elections board on Thursday to order a new election in his congressional race, saying evidence from an investigation of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the vote.

“Through the testimony I’ve listened to in the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th district seat has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”

Election officials had refused to certify Harris as the victor in the disputed Nov. 6 vote, in which he appeared to prevail over Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast. Harris denied knowing about an illegal absentee ballot collection program state investigators said one of his political operatives ran.</s>(Reuters) - North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday unanimously ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of last November’s vote.

The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris requested a new vote, telling the panel that evidence of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the election.

In the televised hearing, board members said “corruption” and the “absolute mess with the absentee ballots” had cast doubt on the fairness of the contest and voters deserved a fresh election.

Harris’ request for a new vote came as a surprise. For months, he had said he should be declared the victor in the 9th Congressional District after he led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6. Elections officials, however, had refused to certify him as the winner due to allegations of irregularities in the vote.

“Through the testimony I’ve listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh. “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.”

Harris’ statement came on the fourth day of a hearing on whether his campaign benefited from what state investigators called illegal election manipulation by political consultant Leslie McCrae Dowless.

Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate’s behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.

But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.

Kim Strach, executive director of the state’s election board, earlier this week called the operation a “coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme.”

According to text messages Harris’ attorneys turned over to the board on Thursday, Harris sought a meeting with Dowless when he learned that Dowless had led a successful absentee ballot program for Republican candidate Todd Johnson during a 2016 congressional primary election.

In those messages to a Bladen County judge, Harris asked about “the guy whose absentee ballot project for Johnson could have put me in the US House this term, had I known, and he had been helping us.”

Harris campaign officials have said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless has maintained his innocence.</s>(Reuters) - North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday unanimously ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of last November’s vote.

The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris requested a new vote, telling the panel that evidence of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the election.

In the televised hearing, board Chairman Bob Cordle said “the corruption” and “absolute mess” with the election’s absentee ballots had cast doubt on the fairness of the contest.

“It certainly was a tainted election,” Cordle said ahead of the vote. “The people of North Carolina deserve a fair election.”

Harris’ request for a new vote came as a surprise. For months, he had said he should be declared the victor in the 9th Congressional District after he led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6. Elections officials, however, had refused to certify him as the winner due to allegations of irregularities in the vote.

“Through the testimony I’ve listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh.

It was unclear whether Harris would run in the new race. He told the board he was recovering from an infection that led to sepsis and two strokes and he was not prepared for the “rigors” of the hearing.

During this week’s hearing, Harris’ son said he had warned his father of potential illegal activity in the election by one of his political operatives, Leslie McCrae Dowless.

North Carolina’s Democratic Party said the hearing had laid bare the Harris campaign’s “illegal scheme to steal an election.”

“This saga could only have ended in a new election,” the state Democrats said.

Harris’ statement came on the fourth day of a hearing on whether his campaign benefited from what state investigators called illegal election manipulation by Dowless.

Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate’s behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.

But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.

Harris campaign officials said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless maintained his innocence.</s>FILE PHOTO: Mark Harris waits to be introduced during a volunteer meeting and rally at the Ardmore Auditorium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, April 8, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Keane/File Photo

(Reuters) - The North Carolina Republican whose congressional campaign is under investigation for potentially tipping the election in his favor with an alleged illegal operation to collect absentee ballots is expected to testify to state election officials on Thursday.

The state board of elections has scheduled a fourth day of evidence hearings into whether Republican Mark Harris' campaign benefited from illegal election manipulation by a political consultant, which may have helped him beat Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast in the Nov. 6 vote.

The state has held off certifying Harris' apparent win after residents of at least two counties in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District said operatives working for Harris collected incomplete absentee ballots, which would violate state election law. In some instances, paid workers falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for races left blank, an election official has said.

If the investigation finds the election was tipped, the five-member State Board of Elections could order a new vote to fill the seat.

Harris' son, John, testified on Wednesday that he had warned his father he suspected the political consultant, Leslie McCrae Dowless, had illegally collected absentee ballots in a 2016 election.

Campaign officials have said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless himself has proclaimed his innocence.

The younger Harris, now an assistant U.S. attorney in North Carolina, said his father was an honest man who he believed would not have continued to employ Dowless if he had known he was illegally collecting absentee ballots.

"I love my dad and I love my mom," John Harris said in closing remarks. "I certainly have no vendetta against them, no family scores to settle. They made mistakes in this process, and they certainly did things differently than I would have done them."

State Republicans have pushed for the board to certify Mark Harris as the district's representative. The U.S. House of Representatives would then determine whether to seat him.

McCready's lawyer, Marc Elias, one of the nation's top election law specialists, said earlier this week the testimony had revealed "massive election fraud" that justified a new vote.

Witnesses this week testified that the fraud appeared to be well funded and well organized by campaign officials. It is a sharply different scheme than the type of fraud by individual voters that Republican President Donald Trump repeatedly and without evidence claimed would affect the November congressional elections.

If Democrats pick up the seat, they would widen their 235-197 majority in the House.</s>(Reuters) - North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of a 2018 vote that has embarrassed the Republican Party.

The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris, confronted by days of evidence that an operative for his campaign orchestrated a ballot fraud scheme, called for a new vote in the state’s 9th Congressional District.

“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,” Harris said on the fourth day of the hearing in Raleigh, the state capital.

Elections Board Chairman Bob Cordle said “the corruption” and “absolute mess” with absentee ballots had cast doubt on the entire contest.

“It certainly was a tainted election,” Cordle said. “The people of North Carolina deserve a fair election.”

The race is the country’s last unsettled 2018 congressional contest, and the outcome will not change the balance of power in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

But evidence of ballot fraud by the Harris campaign turned the tables on the Republican Party, which has accused Democrats with little evidence of encouraging individual voter fraud in races such as the 2016 presidential election.

Harris’ request for a new vote came as a surprise after he spent months trying to fend off a rerun. He led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6, but elections officials refused to certify him the winner because of allegations of irregularities in the vote.

The pastor capitulated after his son testified he had warned his father of potential illegal activity by Republican political operative Leslie McCrae Dowless.

North Carolina law requires that a new primary nominating election also be conducted in the district, which covers parts of Charlotte and the southeast of the state. Republicans have held the seat since 1963.

It is unclear whether Harris, 52, will run again. He told the board he was recovering from an infection last month that led to sepsis and two strokes, and said his illness led to memory lapses during the hearing that made him realize he was not prepared for the “rigors” of the proceeding.

North Carolina’s Democratic Party said the hearing laid bare the Harris campaign’s “illegal scheme to steal an election.” McCready wasted no time in tweeting to supporters to donate to his campaign for the new election.

“Today was a great step forward for democracy in North Carolina,” he tweeted.

If Democrats pick up the seat, they would widen their 235-197 majority in the House after taking control of the chamber from President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the November elections.

State Republicans said they respected Harris’ decision to resolve a “tremendously difficult situation.”

“The people of North Carolina deserve nothing less than the full confidence and trust in the electoral system,” party Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement.

Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate’s behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.

But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.

Harris campaign officials said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless maintained his innocence.</s>After months of investigations and media reports into possible absentee-ballot fraud, we finally have a decision in the disputed election in the North Carolina 9th Congressional District: There will be a new election. This will be the first time that a congressional election has been redone since 1975.

On Thursday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 5-0 to hold a do-over election after hearing evidence that an illegal absentee-ballot scheme cast doubt on the outcome of the original election — which Republican Mark Harris initially appeared to have won by just 905 votes.

Under current law, the 9th District will have to host both a new primary and a new general election. It’s still unknown when the new election will be held, but the campaign could take as long as five months from start to finish. In one possible timeline, a primary would be held over the summer, a potential runoff would be scheduled for September and the general election would be in November.

Who might run in a new election? On the GOP side, it was previously assumed that Harris would run again, but given that he said during the hearing that he was still suffering the effects of serious recent health problems, that now seems less certain. Multiple other Republicans are already reportedly eyeing a campaign, and Harris’s opponent in last year’s race, Democrat Dan McCready, may be gearing up to run again, too.

At this stage, it’s hard to know how the new election will play out. But what we do know is that the North Carolina 9th District is 14 points more Republican-leaning than the country as a whole. However, the district’s previous election was one of the closest races of 2018, and the Cook Political Report has already rated the new election a “Toss Up.” Furthermore, in 2017 and 2018, oddly timed special elections for federal office saw Democrats overperform the partisan leans of their district by an average of 16 points (although that’s certainly subject to change in 2019). McCready, an ex-Marine who raised $6.7 million last cycle, also proved to be a strong Democratic candidate; if he is the Democratic nominee again in the new election, as seems likely, the race could once again be close. And if Harris is the Republican nominee, Democrats might even be favored in the race. Local Republicans reportedly believe that Harris’s ties to the illegal absentee-ballot operation have made him virtually unelectable, and we know from countless previous elections that scandals like this one drag down candidates who are implicated in them.

The state board of elections’ vote came at the end of a long–delayed evidentiary hearing that started Monday and wrapped up on Thursday. Right off the bat, the board said that they had evidence that “a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election.” The hearing went on to provide evidence that backed up earlier media reports that McCrae Dowless, a campaign consultant for Harris, coordinated an illegal absentee-ballot scheme centered on Bladen County, on the eastern end of the district. State investigators also found that the Bladen County elections office was not physically secure and that preliminary results from Bladen County may have gotten into the wrong hands.

On Wednesday afternoon, Harris’s son John Harris testified that he had told his father that he believed Dowless’s methods were illegal after his father first met with Dowless. This contradicted public statements that the elder Harris made previously, in which he told multiple media outlets that no one had raised any red flags about Dowless. And finally, on Thursday, Harris himself took the stand, but he didn’t testify for long. He said that a recent illness had left him confused and prone to memory loss, and that he now believed, given everything he had heard at the hearing, that a new election was warranted.

It was stark retreat from what had been the Republican position as recently as Tuesday, when the executive director of the state party insisted that the number of ballots allegedly tampered with didn’t justify calling a new election. Harris’s turnaround was a remarkable admission of the weight of the evidence against Dowless — as well as how untenable Harris’s position had become politically.
North Carolina election authorities unanimously order a new election to choose the district's representative to the United States House of Representatives after their investigation determined the Republican candidate's campaign illegally handled absentee ballots, and the candidate, Mark Harris, reverses his position and calls for a new election.