Congressional Special Election (last call! unstickied after NY-27 final results)

[Tender Branson]

BTW, who will schedule the new elections now ?

The board or the NC Governor ?

[jimrtex]

The story about the "leaked" results was interesting.

At the end of early voting on Saturday at 1 p.m. They let everyone in line finish voting., and then cleared the room except for the actual election workers, who happened to be 6 Democrats and 2 unaffiliated (there were Republicans, but they only worked a second shift, and there was no second shift that day).

The election workers went about their duties, such as counting unvoted ballots. There were ballots in each of six ballot styles which had to be reconciled, etc. One of the things they believed had to be done was run the results tape, which had all the results printed on thermal paper that tended to roll up.

There were three election workers designated as "judges". There was one head and two assistant judges. Among their duties was to sign the result tape, which they did. This is likely a vestige of when there were hand-counted paper ballots, and the election judges signed the precinct tabulation, which would be locked in the ballot box with the ballots before being delivered to the county.

Except after early voting is completed on Saturday this is not done. Apparently none of the judges or election workers realized this, and were not aware until when informed while they were testifying.

According to Agnes Willis, one of three judges, an election worker (incidentally a Democrat) exclaimed, "oh my god!" and commented that he had thought that the black guy had won, pointing to the the sheriff's race. He had the result tape unrolled, and was pointing at the race, as the other workers walked over. Another judge, who had been responsible for running the tape had testified that he must have rolled the tape out to permit signing (he was one of the three signers) and his eye had caught the sheriff's race. He did not seem to have any recollection of the other workers seeing it. The head judge was not aware of any of this, but had signed the tape and had taken the tape locked up in the "treasure box" to the county. She thought that the elections administrator had questioned her about the "leak" then, but on further questioning had admitted it might have been the following Monday when she was picking up election supplies.

Agnes Willis, told her daughter who lived in Raleigh (or perhaps Greensboro or Charlotte) about the incident on the phone that night.

Two days after the NCSBOE had not certified the results in late November, Willis got a phone call from a local lawyer that she did not know. After saying it would take her an hour to get dressed, he instead came over to house, with a notary in tow, and an affidavit that had biographical information about Willis typed out attesting that she was over 18 and of sound mind and body, and was a resident of Bladen County and a registered voter.

She said that she was confused about what the lawyer wanted to know, and that he seemed confused about what information he was trying to get. After he made several phone calls and talked to Willis, he filled in the affidavit (hand printed in a script that would you have guessed Willis had done it) that she observed officials who were not "judges" looking at the results, and that she understood that his was improper.

She clearly understood the distinction of the word "judges", but people casually reading the affidavit would not. The news stories were that outsiders were in the early voting location perusing the results.

She further went on saying that there appeared to be an unusual number of absentee ballots from one precinct, Bethel. This does not actually appear to be true. Bethel, along with the two Elizabethtown precincts and Bladenboro precincts have more voters. Bethel also had the highest election day votes - and she may have perceived some of these as being absentee ballots - which she claimed could be detected by crease marks from being folded.

As has been discussed earlier, there was not an early voting locations in Dublin (in Bethel precinct) and Bladenboro as there had been for the primary and previous elections. Election day voting in Bladenboro and Dublin was up in 2018 over the 2016, presidential voting. But that was because there was not convenient early voting. Moreover, election day voting in Elizabethtown was below 2016 levels, because it was easier to vote over several weeks than on election day.

In addition, Hurricane Florence had knocked out the regular polling place in Dublin (at the Lions Club), so voters might have been uncertain about voting on election day if they had known about the new location.

Tweet about other issues.

I forgot to mention that the lawyer had run in the 2012 Democratic primary for state representative and lost, and in 2018 filed a claim that the candidate he lost to, who has since become a Republican did not live in the district. He withdrew the claim before the board of elections could consider the objection.

Marc Elias, who was the bagman in the Steele/Russian dossier escapade, tried to get the election judge to admit that North Carolina had oppressed African American voters in North Carolina. After wrangling over whether this was an admissible question, Willis asserted that she did not believe it to be true.

One of the members of the board of elections asked a question based on information in the staff report (which has not been released to the public or the parties in the election contest). After going into executive session, the board let the executive director question Willis, and then the parties could cross examine.

It turns out that Wanda Monroe is the niece of Agnes Willis. Wanda Monroe turned in dozens of absentee ballot requests, and then went back to see that they were voted. Willis had gone with Monroe to several of her neighbors and witnessed their ballot. One of these voters has filed an affidavit that they took his ballot. Willis explained that her neighbor was a bit  slow (or similar words) and had brought her several papers that were not the ballot, before finally finding it.

Lola Wooten another of the ballot request collectors is the cousin of Agnes Willis.

[jimrtex]

BTW, who will schedule the new elections now ?

The board or the NC Governor ?

The board.

Under state law, the board is responsible for conducting elections in North Carolina, and in the case where they believe an election was irregularly conducted to the extent that the result of the election might have been changed (this is of course not the case here), or tainted (this is the ruling of the board) can call the new election.

Under a bill passed by the North Carolina legislature in December, there will be a new primary. North Carolina requires a second primary in cases where no candidate receives a 40% plurality. Since it is a federal election, absentee ballots to overseas and military voters must be sent out at least 45 days prior to the election. My guess would be that the primary will be in May.

[Badger]

Oh jimrtex.......

Never change, sweet prince. Never change.

[Virginiá]

Oh jimrtex.......

Never change, sweet prince. Never change.

Rumor is Netflix just picked up jim's posts in this thread for their new series: Making a Conspiracy

[Tartarus Sauce]

I love how Jimrtex considers the tweet that highlights how Harris nearly committed perjury and had to backtrack at the hearing for whether election fraud was committed as something he classifies to be about "other issues" somehow less important to the case than his long-winded rants about minutiae surrounding other people involved.

[Dr. MB]

Well, Pat might be coming back.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/22/north-carolina-9th-district-election-1206842

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[jimrtex]

I love how Jimrtex considers the tweet that highlights how Harris nearly committed perjury and had to backtrack at the hearing for whether election fraud was committed as something he classifies to be about "other issues" somehow less important to the case than his long-winded rants about minutiae surrounding other people involved.

The tweet that Brittain quoted had nothing to do with what I wrote.

And I remembered a couple of things I had forgot.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

He tweeted today that he will make an announcement about NC-9 at 8:15 AM tomorrow.  I wonder what that could be??

[Rookie Yinzer]

Donated 5 bucks to McCready yesterday but will donate more if McCrory jumps in. He is awful!

[Brittain33]

I love how Jimrtex considers the tweet that highlights how Harris nearly committed perjury and had to backtrack at the hearing for whether election fraud was committed as something he classifies to be about "other issues" somehow less important to the case than his long-winded rants about minutiae surrounding other people involved.

The tweet that Brittain quoted had nothing to do with what I wrote.

And I remembered a couple of things I had forgot.

Did you find it off-putting when I responded to your post with information on a completely different aspect of the thread’s subject, just because I thought it was more important and relevant and what I wanted to talk about?

[Virginiá]

Pat not running apparently

https://twitter.com/LaurenHorsch/status/1100023292474417152

[Doimper]

Pat not running apparently

https://twitter.com/LaurenHorsch/status/1100023292474417152

What? What was the point of this?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Pat not running apparently

https://twitter.com/LaurenHorsch/status/1100023292474417152

Looking forward to Cooper slapping down Potty Pat again.

[IceSpear]

I don't really see any reason why McCrory could beat Cooper in a rematch considering he couldn't even win re-election in 2016 of all years. It'll probably be close though.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I don't really see any reason why McCrory could beat Cooper in a rematch considering he couldn't even win re-election in 2016 of all years. It'll probably be close though.

Cooper should win reelection by 5-6 points, very popular nice ff guy.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Harris always came across as just another in a long litany of sleazebag hypocrite/liar that often preys upon and draws undying devotion from the Evangelical community. And then when they get caught, they play the martyrdom card.

Lets just be honest, the religious right has a long history of getting played for fools by such people and frankly a lot of it comes back to the edifice built up on the right in the US over the past several decades, that rewards self enrichment and empowerment as an effective means of rooting out any kind of non-conformity in terms of the dogma.

Shysters and Hucksters like Harris are automatically regarded as heroes, while a business Republican like Pittenger is seen as a traitor simply because he voted to keep the lights on.

[DC Al Fine]

Harris always came across as just another in a long litany of sleazebag hypocrite/liar that often preys upon and draws undying devotion from the Evangelical community. And then when they get caught, they play the martyrdom card.

Lets just be honest, the religious right has a long history of getting played for fools by such people and frankly a lot of it comes back to the edifice built up on the right in the US over the past several decades, that rewards self enrichment and empowerment as an effective means of rooting out any kind of non-conformity in terms of the dogma.

Shysters and Hucksters like Harris are automatically regarded as heroes, while a business Republican like Pittenger is seen as a traitor simply because he voted to keep the lights on.

Absolutely true. We Evangelicals need to be much, much more demanding of our leaders.

[cg41386]

Well, Harris will not be running, citing “health” reasons.

[Tartarus Sauce]

Harris always came across as just another in a long litany of sleazebag hypocrite/liar that often preys upon and draws undying devotion from the Evangelical community. And then when they get caught, they play the martyrdom card.

Lets just be honest, the religious right has a long history of getting played for fools by such people and frankly a lot of it comes back to the edifice built up on the right in the US over the past several decades, that rewards self enrichment and empowerment as an effective means of rooting out any kind of non-conformity in terms of the dogma.

Shysters and Hucksters like Harris are automatically regarded as heroes, while a business Republican like Pittenger is seen as a traitor simply because he voted to keep the lights on.

Well put.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1100481952342294528
Apparently he’s running on the platform of getting those Duke boys

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1100481952342294528
Apparently he’s running on the platform of getting those Duke boys

If this guy is the GOP nominee, I pray to god the Democrats take this seat.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1100481952342294528
Apparently he’s running on the platform of getting those Duke boys

His name even sounds like a character from that show. Stony Rushing? Seriously? It also kind of sounds like a porn stage name.

[Pollster]

McCrae Dowless indicted.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1100803081992892418

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/Politics1com/status/1100841727500394496