Odds increase for new election in 9th District, experts suggest

The prospect Democrats will get their wish for a new election in the 9th Congressional District could be getting stronger. 

A growing body of news reports suggests coordinated election irregularities occurred in Bladen and Robeson counties, challenging last month’s narrow victory by Republican Mark Harris, a Baptist preacher. Harris defeated Democrat Dan McCready, a solar investor, by 905 votes Nov. 6, according to unofficial figures. Libertarian Jeff Scott, a business intelligence and technology consultant, ran a distant third. 

Gerry Cohen, former special counsel to the General Assembly, said either the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement or the U.S. House of Representatives could order a new election if substantial anomalies in mail-in absentee ballots in Bladen and Robeson counties warrant it.

Mark Graber, senior legal counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said an appeal for a new election would go to House Rules Committee. In the past it appointed a bipartisan committee to conduct investigations.

Read the full article