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Ten
Republican candidates and one Democrat are vying for the seat in
the U.S. House of Representatives that has remained unfilled
since an investigation found that a Republican political
operative ran a scheme in which volunteers improperly collected,
and sometimes filled in, absentee ballots.
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.
Democrat Dan McCready appeared to lose to Republican Mark Harris
by a slim margin before state officials said the election had
been tainted. McCready is the sole Democrat contesting the
re-run race; Harris is not running.
The Republican candidates on Tuesday's ballot are state Senator
Dan Bishop, Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing, former
state Senator and Representative Fern Shubert; as well as
Matthew Ridenhour, a former county commissioner, Chris Anglin, a
Raleigh-based attorney, Leigh Brown, a realtor, Gary Dunn,
Stevie Hull, Albert Lee Wiley Jr. and Kathie Day.
If no Republican candidate receives at least 30% of the votes on
Tuesday, a second primary will be held in September for the
candidates with the two highest numbers of votes. The seat
represents a district of North Carolina that runs along the
state's southern border from Charlotte to near Fayetteville.
Democrats won a commanding 235-seat majority in the 435-member
House of Representatives in November and the final result of the
North Carolina race will not tip the balance of power.
The bipartisan 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 Harris.
During the hearing, Harris' son said he had warned his father of
potential illegal activity by one of his political operatives,
Leslie McCrae Dowless. Witnesses testified that Dowless and his
paid workers had collected incomplete absentee ballots and
sometimes falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for
contests left blank.
Dowless was charged 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,
according to court documents.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Scott
Malone and Alistair Bell)
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