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The unanimous ruling by the North Carolina State Board of Elections was a startling — and, for Republicans, embarrassing — turn in a case of political chicanery that convulsed North Carolina.
“It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District’s general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,” the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, said from the witness stand Thursday afternoon.
Harris’ announcement represented an abrupt collapse of the Republican effort to stave off a new vote in the 9th District, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina. But the evangelical pastor’s political surrender came only after a damaging 24 hours for Harris and his allies; just before Harris called for a new election, he acknowledged that some of his earlier testimony had been “incorrect.”
Although Harris maintained Thursday that he did not know, in real time, about any illegal behavior by L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a campaign contractor, or his workers, witnesses this week depicted an operation that was rife with misconduct, including the completion and collection of absentee ballots. Both actions are illegal in North Carolina, and witnesses said that they had occurred repeatedly.
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Dowless, who refused to testify before the board, has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the 2018 election, nor have any of his workers, who were often friends or relatives with little ideological interest in politics. Prosecutors are examining the operation, though, and are considering whether to bring any criminal cases.
The North Carolina board’s decision will leave the 9th District in a state of protracted limbo: Already the site of the final unsettled House race of last year’s midterms, the district is now poised to remain without representation in Congress for at least several more months. It was not clear whether Harris, who had a 905-vote lead over his Democratic rival, Dan McCready, in last year’s election would choose to run in the new election.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.