Tag: Mark Harris

Republican-voting voters from Fayetteville to Charlotte will vote May 14 for a Republican nominee. Boatloads of cash are coming into the special 9th Congressional District election, according to government records and news accounts. The McCready campaign also has a $250,000 debt leftover from the 2018 race, when McCready lent it the money. Leigh Brown Republican Leigh Brown had $38,880 in receipts and just over $1,200 in disbursements as of March 31. The Charlotte Observer reported the PAC is making a $1.3 million television ad buy for Brown. Through March 31 Bishop had spent $6,300. Stony Rushing Republican Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing had $36,300 in donations and about $15,740 in spending. She had $2,500 in spending. The deadline to register to vote on May 14 is Monday. Keynote speaker: Candidate Dan McCready.

To recklessly throw around claims of voting fraud is to play a dangerous game that could do lasting harm to our democracy. NPR pointed out a recent high-profile example recently: Asked about the absentee ballot tampering in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District that has prompted a new election, President Donald Trump gave an answer designed to confuse. Despite such frequently repeated claims of massive problems, the evidence shows that outright voter fraud is rare in this country (so rare that a commission appointed by Trump to investigate fraud in the 2016 election was disbanded with no results to show for its efforts). The charges involve illegally obtaining and altering absentee ballots, and the improprieties benefited a Republican candidate. Rather than worrying about actual absentee ballot tampering in Bladen County, some Republicans in the North Carolina legislature have been using false and vague charges of voter fraud to try to win support for suppressing minority voters. People in both parties can play the game. Some Democrats use emotionally loaded words such as “purge” to exaggerate such procedures as challenging registrations. We’re already seeing the hard-won gains in voting rights for minorities being eroded because of fears. We have to contend with Russians and others manipulating social media to make us lose faith in our system. We don’t need our political leaders further whipping up divisions and doubts with reckless and misleading rhetoric.

In November, unofficial totals showed that Mark Harris had defeated Dan McCready by 905 votes. But that victory has unravelled in the three months since.

The Story: In the 9th Congressional District, NC, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, Mark Harris, seemed to have defeated his Democratic foe,...