The Republican House candidate whose unofficial victory in a North Carolina race has been called into a question with an ongoing election fraud investigation won’t be seated with the new Congress next week, incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) confirmed to Charlotte’s WSOC-TV Friday.
BREAKING: Rep @StenyHoyer tells @wsoctv that Mark Harris will NOT be seated on Jan 3.
“Given the now well-documented election fraud that took place in #NC09, Democrats would object to any attempt by Mr. Harris to be seated on January 3.” #ncpol @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/Uf0IZIRfQY
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) December 28, 2018
Rep. Hoyer tells @wsoctv: “In this instance, the integrity of our democratic process outweighs concerns about the seat being vacant at the start of the new Congress.”
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) December 28, 2018
State election officials this month refused to certify the election of North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, where Republican Mark Harris had an unofficial lead of 900-some votes over Democrat Dan McCready. Irregularities in the absentee vote tallies in the district prompted an investigation into an absentee ballot scheme run by a local operative linked to Harris’ campaign. The state elections board will hold a hearing on the investigation’s findings next month.
Only the absentee voters themselves and their close relatives can turn in absentee ballots under state law. However, operative Leslie McCrae Dowless is accused of running an operation of collecting and turning in absentee ballots in the district. Some witnesses have told news outlets that they turned ballots in to people working for Dowless, only to to find out from officials that the ballots were not submitted.
