Forget President Trump's breathless, baseless voter fraud conspiracies, and turn to North Carolina for a dose of a truly scary violation of the electoral process.
On election night, the Associated Press called the race in the state's 9th Congressional District for Republican Mark Harris; Democrat Dan McCready conceded. The unofficial tally had Harris winning by 905 votes.
Then came the official count _ and questions upon questions about hundreds and hundreds of ballots. Friday, the state Board of Elections refused to certify the election in the wake of "irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail voting."
In Bladen County, Harris hired one Leslie McCrae Dowless _ previously convicted of felony fraud _ to oversee absentee-ballot collection. Forty percent of absentee ballots there, overwhelmingly from minority voters, were never returned to election officials. Meanwhile, signed voter affidavits allege that McCrae Dowless forged and destroyed multiple ballots. (Two years ago, he was accused of stunningly similar shenanigans.)
The same man was involved in this year's GOP primary, where Harris won a suspicious 90 percent of returned Bladen County absentee ballots over the incumbent.
Oddly, not a peep yet from Trump or national Republicans on what has the stink of actual blatant vote manipulation. Hmm.
