State Board Refuses to Certify 9th NC Congressional District Race Results

RALEIGH – Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready had an election for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District that went down to the wire. After all counties in the district certified their election results Harris was ahead by around 1,000 votes (out of 280,000+). McCready actually conceded the race, before the county certifications, on the day after the election. Harris is making plans to be sworn in in January.

The State Board of Elections has other ideas, at least certain members of it. Tuesday the board declined to certify the results, and they aren’t revealing exactly why, except to hint at voting irregularities and possible fraud. (We thought vote fraud was a nonexistent threat?)

The vice chair of the board, Joshua Malcolm, said he would no longer “turn a blind eye” to what he called “unfortunate activities.” Malcolm, a Democrat, dropped a bombshell.

“I’m very familiar with the unfortunate activities that have happened in my part of the state,” Malcolm said during the meeting. “And I am not going to turn a blind eye to what took place to the best of my understanding, which has been ongoing for a number of years, and which has been repeatedly referred to the United States attorney and the district attorneys to clean up. Those things have not taken place.”

Malcolm did not elaborate after making that statement. The board went into session and then declined to certify the results. It cited a state statute that allows the board to “take any action to ensure that an election is determined “without taint of fraud or corruption and without irregularities.”

Malcolm is from Robeson County, which is in the 9th District. He was appointed by former Republican Governor Patrick McCrory in 2013 and re-appointed to the board by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.”

So the Democrat vice chair is hinting at some sort of vote fraud, all while the Democrats push against Voter ID includes the suggestion that vote fraud is nonexistent. Malcolm does know better, of course, being from the vote fraud capital of the Old North State – Robeson County.

However, it does not appear that he is pointing the finger toward his home county here, judging by comments from NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse.

“Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the N.C. Republican Party, said the allegations appear to be about Bladen County, one of two counties won by Harris. Woodhouse did not say why he believes Bladen County is the focus but added: “If someone is going to steal votes out of Bladen County, they have to steal well more than 1,000. Because you don’t know what the margin is going to be… I mean that’s crazy.”

He said the board should have certified the results because McCready never contested the race and Bladen County has certified all of its results. 

The Bladen County Elections Board voted 3-1 earlier this month to certify the results. Board member Al Daniels was the one no vote, but he declined to say why he voted no. 

Bobby Ludlum, the chair of the board, said Tuesday night that there were four attorneys from the McCready campaign when the board reviewed provisional and absentee-by-mail ballots.

He said to his knowledge they “didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.” He also said he has “no idea” what the problem could be.”

The Democratic vice chair said he wants to be sure the election results reflect the ‘actual will of the people.’ In so doing he insinuates corruption without revealing a even a morsel about why they would leads to their suspicion.

Bladen County certainly deserves to know why their certified results are being ignored by the state board, if indeed Woodhouse’s supposition is correct.

Moreover, if Bladen County is going to get a full body search over its results, would it not behoove the board to similarly examine the results in neighboring Robeson County, infamous for vote fraud and election investigations?

Ah, but Robeson County was a solid victory for Democrat McCready, even while two out of three state legislative races in that county swung hard for Republicans. The third contest was an 11,000 to 8,000 victory for a longtime incumbent.

We’ll have to wait and see exactly what motivated Malcolm and the other members of the state board to not certify the results of the race. However, with all of the post-election day ‘win-by-a-nose’ victories for the Democrats going on, it wouldn’t surprise us if the shenanigans here are on the Left, not on the Right.

Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if there were simple way to reduce opportunities for vote fraud in close elections?

Have a hot tip for First In Freedom Daily?

Got a hot news tip for us? Photos or video of a breaking story? Send your tips, photos and videos to tips@firstinfreedomdaily.com. All hot tips are immediately forwarded to FIFD Staff.

Have something to say? Send your own guest column or original reporting to submissions@firstinfreedomdaily.com.