# More NC Elections Shenanigans **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 17, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256 "2018-06-17T13:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/201 "2019-02-18T22:26:13Z")
here is a good summary , the leader of the fraud told a person who worked for him to plead the 5th today but she did not. > **[North Carolina Election Board Finds Evidence Of Significant Fraud To Help GOP...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/north-carolina-election-fraud-evidence_n_5c6ae122e4b01757c36e79ae)** > > The board’s executive director said an operative for candidate Mark Harris tried to conceal illegal acts with absentee ballots. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/202 "2019-02-18T22:30:19Z")
> **[N Carolina elections head says ballots handled illegally](https://apnews.com/article/29cb5817cf6f4e6fbb43a4a245578d4c)** > > RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Republican operative conducted an illegal and well-funded ballot-harvesting operation, North Carolina's elections director said Monday, but the first session of a days-long hearing produced scant evidence that the GOP... > [@](#): > > “The evidence that we will provide today will show that a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated in the 2018 general election” in rural Bladen and Robeson counties, which are part of North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, state elections director Kim Strach said at the start of a state elections board hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/203 "2019-02-19T15:33:23Z")
> [@HuffPost link](#): > > Just as the first day of the hearing was coming to a close, the board called Dowless as a witness. But Singletary, his lawyer, said her client would decline to testify unless the board ordered him to do so. > > After the board went into a brief closed session, board member Robert Cordle said a state statute required Dowless to be given immunity if he was ordered to testify ― something the board was unwilling to do. Instead, Cordle asked him to testify voluntarily and said they would assume “negative inferences” if he did not. Singletary said again that Dowless would not testify. > > “My client would love to testify under the right conditions,” Singletary told reporters after the hearing. Yeah, the right conditions being “immunity from prosecution”. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/204 "2019-02-21T02:21:12Z")
Mark Harris’ son, John, testified today. He said he’d warned his old man that Dowless wasn’t playing straight. But Mark Harris didn’t listen, and hired Dowless anyway: > [@NPR](#): > > [John Harris] noticed odd results in vote-by-mail results in Bladen County, where the third-place finisher, Todd Johnson, won a near sweep of those ballots in the county. Dowless worked on behalf of Johnson in 2016. > John Harris then looked at publicly available data on when ballots were received and noticed that the absentee ballots were returned in “batches.” > That led him to believe that someone was collecting ballots and turning them in. > “Did you talk about those concerns with Mark Harris?” asked Kim Strach, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. > “I did,” said John Harris. > [Mark Harris' Son Says He Warned Of North Carolina Ballot Issues : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/695996806/in-north-carolina-election-investigation-hearing-focus-turns-to-gop-candidate) He finished his testimony saying that he didn’t think his dad really knew that Dowless was acting illegally. 😕 In yesterday’s testimony, Andy Yates, of Red Dome, sorta threw Dowless into the meat grinder. > [@Charlotte Observer](#): > > “I don’t know what to believe about McCrae Dowless. I don’t know whether or not to believe anything Mr. Dowless ever told me,” said Andy Yates, co-founder of the Cornelius-based Red Dome Group, a political consulting firm. Yates said the Dowless deal was secured before he (Yates) got involved. > [@](#): > > Yates said that Harris personally hired Dowless to conduct get-out-the-vote operations in Bladen County before Harris hired Yates. “I felt Mr. Dowless was a done deal before I was even brought onto the campaign,” Yates testified. > [https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226453520.html](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226453520.html) Also, there were other nefarious acts going-on in lovely Bladen County. It seems that poll workers may have been leaking early-voting results. Details in the above Charlotte Observer article. There’s also a photo of the note that Dowless gave to witnesses, directing them to plead the 5th. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/205 "2019-02-21T13:10:53Z")
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Harris_(North_Carolina_politician)): > [@](#): > > Harris served as the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina,[3] and as president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Seems like Harris is right in the wheelhouse of the current “What principles? Just win, baby!” ethic of white evangelicalism. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/206 "2019-02-21T20:03:48Z")
Harris threw in the towel, he is calling for a new election. > **[State Board of Elections calls for new election in 9th district](https://abc11.com/mark-harris-republicans-democrats-mccrae-dowless/5148554/)** > > After hours of testimony Thursday, Mark Harris told the North Carolina State Board of Elections that he supports a new election in the 9th Congressional District race. The BOE unanimously agreed. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/207 "2019-02-21T20:25:13Z")
Bank robber to the police: “Okay, you’ve caught me red-handed. Whaddya say you let me go and we try again tomorrow?” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/208 "2019-02-21T20:27:55Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Harris threw in the towel, he is calling for a new election. > > [Mark Harris NC: Harris says he supports new election in 9th Congressional District after testimony in ballot scheme hearing - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham](https://abc11.com/mark-harris-after-hours-of-testimony-says-he-supports-new-election/5148554/) He did so, if I’m reading it correctly, after the board [rebuked him for prevaricating about the communication between his son and himself](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/candidate-says-new-congressional-election-warranted-in-north-carolina/2019/02/21/acae4482-35e0-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.8200d4fbd78d): > [@WaPo](#): > > Harris’s testimony followed the dramatic opening moments of Thursday’s hearings, in which Josh Lawson, general counsel for the State Board of Elections, disclosed a letter rebuking Harris’s campaign lawyers for failing to turn over the emails between Harris and his son until 15 minutes before John Harris appeared Wednesday. Why, he claims, didn’t he believe his son? > [@](#): > > Harris said he didn’t follow his son’s advice in part because John Harris was just 27 years old at the time and added that the younger Harris is “a little judgmental and has a little taste of arrogance and some other things. And I’m very proud of him and love him with all my heart.” Man, fuck that dude. “I hired a cheat who my son told me was a cheat because he’s judgy.” > [@Mark Harris's Website](#): > > Mark is a supporter of our traditional family values. He led the charge for the marriage amendment in 2012 that defined marriage between one man and one woman. He also opposed Charlotte’s dangerous transgender bathroom ordinance that would allow men to use women’s public bathrooms and showers and women to use men’s bathrooms based on how they identified at that time. “Also, he’s arrogant, and I’m a lot older, so I know way better than an arrogant twerp like him, even though he was totally right and I was totally wrong, but I’m still gonna call him arrogant in a public hearing.” FUUUCK THAAAAT DUUUUUDE ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/209 "2019-02-21T21:02:48Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Bank robber to the police: “Okay, you’ve caught me red-handed. Whaddya say you let me go and we try again tomorrow?” I’m seriously wondering if that’s what’s going to happen. From what I can tell, if there is a new election, Harris will have to stay as the GOP candidate, they can’t pick a new one. And judging by Harris’ son’s testimony and accompanying documentation, Harris had been warned that Dowless was shady and he hired him anyway. That’s … not a good look. If there is a new election and McCready wins, then problem solved, at least as far as representation for that district is concerned. But what if Harris were to win the new election? Would the House still refuse to seat him, seeing as how everyone now knows that Harris was aware there could very well be a good amount of cheatin’ and lyin’ happening on his behalf and that he hasn’t been exactly forthcoming about it? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/210 "2019-02-21T21:09:45Z")
New election declared. [story](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/candidate-says-new-congressional-election-warranted-in-north-carolina/2019/02/21/acae4482-35e0-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.6646d2cc52c6) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/211 "2019-02-21T21:22:04Z")
I would think the state GOP would try to get Harris not to run again and it seems like he is saying health issues will cause him not to run. Also there will be others running against him in the primary so he may not win that. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/212 "2019-02-21T21:53:34Z")
OK, so there will be a primary. There was - way back when - some concern about whether to force Harris on the ballot as last year’s primary winner. But it seems he’s conceded his political career is over with. Yow, gonna be a tense Thanksgiving next year at the Harris place. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/213 "2019-02-21T22:11:57Z")
Dunno. If I were utterly unscrupulous and corrupt, I would advise the GOP to run him on the “Fake News!” banner, lying their asses off about “persecution” and the “MSM”. He might very well win! ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/214 "2019-02-21T22:19:10Z")
also the 3rd district NC congressman just died so there will be a primary and special election for that seat. Might be simpler to hold the 2 elections on the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/215 "2019-02-22T00:15:20Z")
This really pisses me off. Republicans spent years passing voter ID laws, on the theory that they were necessary to end a phantom wave of voting by illegal aliens. They reduced the number of early voting locations and days and same-day registration. In 2016, North Carolina restricted voting in ways that were targeted at reducing voting by African-Americans. (These restrictions in North Carolina were overturned by the courts.) And now we find that perhaps the biggest voting fraud was being conducted to benefit a Republican candidate from North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/216 "2019-02-22T00:59:51Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > OK, so there will be a primary. There was - way back when - some concern about whether to force Harris on the ballot as last year’s primary winner. But it seems he’s conceded his political career is over with. > > Yow, gonna be a tense Thanksgiving next year at the Harris place. Yeah, I just heard on the local news that there will likely be a new primary. Harris is now claiming he’s experienced two strokes that have affected his decision-making abilities. Hm. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/217 "2019-02-22T01:09:09Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And now we find that perhaps the biggest voting fraud was being conducted to benefit a Republican candidate from North Carolina. The surprise in North Carolina isn’t that an insanely corrupt political system is set up to benefit a conservative candidate (and make no mistake, the system used to benefit Democrats, back when Democrats were conservatives). The surprise is that they got caught and investigated. The whole thing is outrageous, but the corruption is old school. > [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Yow, gonna be a tense Thanksgiving next year at the Harris place. According to my wife–even more unhealthily obsessed with politics than myself–Harris, Jr. is a rightwing attorney who’s planning to make a move for State Supreme Court judge in 2020, and threw his dad under the bus in order to save his own political career. Tense Thanksgiving indeed. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/218 "2019-02-22T01:23:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > According to my wife–even more unhealthily obsessed with politics than myself–Harris, Jr. is a rightwing attorney who’s planning to make a move for State Supreme Court judge in 2020, and threw his dad under the bus in order to save his own political career. One wonders how successful that’s likely to be considering how the state has been heading judge-wise lately. Some folks will appreciate his coming forward regardless of the motive. Others won’t find throwing family members under the bus particularly attractive. I guess time will tell. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/219 "2019-02-22T01:32:23Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > According to my wife–even more unhealthily obsessed with politics than myself–Harris, Jr. is a rightwing attorney who’s planning to make a move for State Supreme Court judge in 2020, and threw his dad under the bus in order to save his own political career. > > Tense Thanksgiving indeed. Forgot what thread I was in for a minute, and thought this was about Kamala Harris’s dad complaining about her joking about pot. Made this a really weird post to parse. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256/220 "2019-02-22T02:43:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Forgot what thread I was in for a minute, and thought this was about Kamala Harris’s dad complaining about her joking about pot. > > Made this a really weird post to parse. Heh–I saw the other thread title, and thought, “Is Harris’s daughter also throwing him under the bus?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-nc-elections-shenanigans/816256.md?page=12)