|
The
new primary election for the state's 9th District in the U.S.
House of Representatives, which stretches southeast from
Charlotte to north of Whiteville along the state's southern
border, will take place on May 14, the bipartisan state
elections board said.
The general election will be held on Sept. 10 if no second
primary is needed on that date. If there is a second primary,
the general election will take place on Nov. 5. The candidate
with the second highest number of votes may demand a second
primary if no candidate receives more than 30 percent of the
vote; the top two vote-getters would be on the second primary
ballot.
The race is the country's last unsettled 2018 congressional
contest, but the outcome will not change the balance of power in
the Democratic-controlled House.
The state Board of Elections ordered a new vote in February
after a four-day hearing during which it heard evidence of what
election officials called a well-funded campaign to tip the
election by a political operative working for Republican House
candidate Mark Harris.
Residents of at least two counties in the district said Leslie
McCrae 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.
Dowless was arrested and charged on Feb. 27 with three felony
counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiring to
commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of
absentee ballots, court documents said.
Citing health concerns, Harris said after the hearing that he
will not run again for the seat. 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.
McCready has declared his candidacy.
The months-long scandal became an embarrassment to President
Donald Trump's Republican Party, which has accused Democrats
without proof of encouraging voter fraud in races such as the
2016 presidential election.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; editing by Colleen
Jenkins and Diane Craft)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
