From: januarybaybee@gmail.com   
      
   North Carolina this time.  Lots of ballots collected door-to-door and then   
   either altered to favor the Republican candidate [Mark Harris] or simply   
   destroyed.   
      
   The number of fraudulent actions across the U.S. in these past midterms - all   
   by the Republicans - are a major flag for the Democrats going into the 2020   
   elections.   
      
   Just like the election of Trump in 2016 - the interference with American   
   elections is now so severe that many of the candidates in the House and the   
   Senate may simply NOT be the true winners.  Get involved!   
                                                      ________________________   
   Wed 5 Dec 2018 12.56 EST   
      
      
   North Carolina election still undecided amid absentee ballot fraud inquiry   
      
   Allegations of election fraud have thrown a North Carolina congressional race   
   into limbo, sparking investigations and leaving control of the national seat   
   undecided weeks after the midterm elections.   
      
   In the state’s ninth district, Republican Mark Harris finished ahead of   
   Democrat Dan McReady by 905 votes.   
      
   But the state board of elections refused on Friday to certify the results –   
   instead moving to investigate “claims of numerous irregularities and   
   concerted fraudulent activities related to absentee-by-mail ballots”, said   
   Joshua Malcolm, now the    
   chair of the board. Officials could potentially order a new election.   
      
   The charges – also the subject of a criminal investigation – center on the   
   activities of a political operative in Bladen county, Leslie McCrae Dowless.   
   Dowless, who has a criminal record and was working for the Republican   
   campaign, appears to have    
   been running an operation to collect absentee ballots from voters.  That is   
   illegal in North Carolina.   
      
   “He’s like [someone] out of central casting. You should be looking for   
   someone to play him in the movie,” said Gerry Cohen, a former special   
   counsel to the North Carolina general assembly and election law expert.   
   “Every place has some sort of    
   political character. This guy is that, on steroids.”   
      
   Several voters said in affidavits, submitted to the board of elections by the   
   state Democratic party, that a person they didn’t know showed up at their   
   homes to collect their absentee ballots.   
      
   Voter Datesha Montgomery said she handed over her ballot to a woman who came   
   to her door after filling in votes for sheriff and board of education, but not   
   for the congressional seat. “She stated the others were not important. I   
   gave her the ballot and    
   she said she would finish it herself,” she said.   
      
   Two women told WSOC 9 that Dowless paid them to collect ballots. Cheryl Kinlaw   
   said she was paid $100 to pick up ballots, extra money she needed for   
   Christmas presents. “I feel bad now that I know that it wasn’t legal, but   
   I didn’t know at the time,   
   ” Kinlaw told the station, adding she dropped off the ballots to Dowless at   
   an office building. “I don’t know what happened to them. He had stacks of   
   them on his desk.”   
      
   Dowless turned in at least 592 absentee ballot request forms in Bladen county,   
   according to documents posted by the board of elections.   
      
   What’s not clear is what the operative did with completed ballots once he   
   collected them from voters. But numbers suggest something may be amiss.   
      
   “The most disturbing thing is the issue of, did this third party dispose of   
   ballots, throw them out and never return them based on how the person may have   
   voted?” Cohen said. “If operatives were basically throwing out ballots   
   from black and Native    
   American voters, they were basically stealing votes.”   
      
   Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political science professor, crunched the   
   numbers and found that in Bladen county, only 19% of absentee ballots sent in   
   by mail came from registered Republicans. But 61% of those ballots were cast   
   for the Republican,    
   Harris.   
      
   It’s not statistically impossible that that result could happen   
   legitimately, but it’s a pattern not seen in any other county.   
      
   “It’s an odd situation,” Bitzer said.   
      
   Further, many of the absentee ballots requested in Bladen county and nearby   
   Robeson county were not returned at all. In Robeson, nearly two-thirds of the   
   absentee ballots, or 1,180 ballots, weren’t returned, according to   
   Bitzer’s analysis. In Bladen,    
   it was 495 ballots, or 40%.   
      
   That compares with a quarter of absentee ballots not returned statewide.   
      
   An analysis by the News & Observer found that the ballots of minority voters   
   went unreturned at a disproportionate rate.   
      
   “I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of absentee ballot fraud in North   
   Carolina since the late 1940s,” said Cohen, the election law expert.   
      
   The board of elections could order a new election if they find irregularities   
   swayed enough votes to change the outcome of the election, or that fraud has   
   tainted the results of the race overall and cast doubt on its fairness.   
      
   If that happens, the uncertainty would stretch on beyond January, when the new   
   member of Congress is set to be seated.   
      
   The seat is now held by Representative Robert Pittenger, who was defeated by   
   Harris in the GOP primary.   
      
   “These allegations are incredibly serious and, if true, they outline a   
   calculated effort to illegally undermine our free elections and to sway the   
   election in favor of a specific candidate,” Wayne Goodwin, chair of the   
   North Carolina Democratic party,   
    said at a press conference this week.   
      
   He blasted Republicans for hypocrisy for their push for voter ID laws and   
   frequent warnings about voter fraud. “The hypocrisy is unmistakable,” he   
   said. “If Republicans are truly concerned about the integrity of our   
   elections, they will not stand    
   in the way of uncovering the truth.”   
      
   Harris has welcomed an investigation but said not enough votes were affected   
   to change the outcome of the election. “The State Board of Elections should   
   act immediately to certify the race while continuing to conduct their   
   investigation. Anything else    
   is a disservice to the people of the Ninth District,” he said on Twitter.   
      
   The state Republican party has threatened legal action if Harris is not   
   certified the   
   winner.     
      
      
   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/05/north-carolina-e   
   ection-still-undecided-amid-absentee-ballot-inquiry   
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   _______________   
      
   North Carolina GOP leader says he's open to new election amid 9th District   
   voter fraud controversy   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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