The editorial board of the Charlotte Observer, the largest paper in both Carolinas, is calling for a new election in North Carolina’s 9th District, a race that has been stained with accusations of fraud and vote theft.
Currently, the Republican Mark Harris has a 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready.
As the Observer notes, it is still unclear how much Harris knew about the duplicitous actions on his behalf, and his participation is being investigated.
But for now, the board argues, voters deserve the assurance that the race is free and fair.
“North Carolina statute supports it. The evidence already demands it,” the editorial staff writes. “The Board of Elections should start the election over.”
NC GOP:
NOPE - We cheated fair and square … the seat is ours … possession is 9/10s of the law … people say our guy won … it was a wonderful election …
The problem with a new election is that Harris seems to have cheated in the primary as well. The new race should be Pettinger vs. Mcready, with Harris excluded.
Was a close race, should just go to the Dem, who likely won if it was not for all the fraud. It’s all BS anyways since the only reason Repugs have as many seats as they do in NC is due to gerry mandering.
Local TV stations should follow suit. Think of all the political ad money they could rake in!
Republicans have a choice here. They can try to hold a seat in Congress based on an uncertified and uncertifiable election result, so as to be in slightly smaller minority, and simultaneously show themselves to be total hypocrites on election security. Or they can call for a new election, probably lose because their side cheated (whether the candidate knew about it or not – probably did but rationalized it) and voters hate that. But at least they won’t be hypocrites.
Hmm. I wonder which one they will choose? My guess is they will argue that any fraud is speculative and didn’t change the outcome, and that this just proves how much fraud the Ds promote. In other words, they go full Trump.