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.
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