We are talking about Voter Fraud and Electoral Fraud - which are distinctly two separate things - each with a defined list of items which constitutes the behavior. Legally in the U.S. there is no such thing as "election fraud".
The circus continues... Cooper names new elections board chairman https://www.wral.com/cooper-names-new-elections-board-chairman/18038266/ Gov. Roy Cooper on Monday appointed Joshua Malcolm chairman of the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, replacing an embattled chair who resigned over the weekend. The governor also appointed former board member Robert Cordle to fill the vacancy left when Malcolm shifted into the chairman's seat. Malcolm has been a driving force behind the board's investigation into voting irregularities in the 9th Congressional District, which has delayed final results in that race. Republicans blasted the choice. Former Chairman Andy Penry resigned over the weekend after criticism of public displays of partisanship on his social media account. Malcolm is the most partisan board member from either party, North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes said. "Per usual, Gov. Cooper takes a bad situation and makes it worse by continuing to erode confidence in the neutrality of the board," Hayes said in a statement. Cooper said in his statement that Malcolm's "leadership and experience will will help ensure fair and honest elections." North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin said Penry "did the right thing" by stepping down. Goodwin also called on state Republican leaders to allow state elections officials to complete their investigation. When the board announced the probe last week, Republicans objected, saying they would take legislative or judicial action to force the certification of Republican Mark Harris as the winner of the 9th District race. "North Carolina voters deserve to know that their right to freely and fairly cast their ballot is safe and protected," Goodwin said Monday at a news conference. "If Republicans are truly concerned about the integrity of our elections, they will not stand in the way of uncovering the truth." Cooper picked Cordle from a list of two nominees put forward by the North Carolina Democratic Party. The other was Greg Flynn, who serves now on the Wake County Board of Elections. Cordle is a retired attorney. He served on what was then known as the State Board of Elections from 2001 to 2013, the Governor's Office said.
North Carolina's Election Turmoil: What We Know and Don't Know https://www.wral.com/north-carolina-s-election-turmoil-what-we-know-and-don-t-know/18038337/ A congressional race in North Carolina that seemed to be settled on election night was reopened last week amid allegations of absentee ballot fraud. The Republican candidate, Mark Harris, has a 905-vote lead over the Democrat, Dan McCready. Here’s what we know, and what we don’t know. What we know — The North Carolina State Board of Elections certified election results last week in 12 of the state’s 13 congressional districts. But it voted unanimously not to certify the results in the Ninth District — where the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, led the Democrat, Dan McCready, by less than half a percentage point — because of absentee ballot irregularities. — Bladen County, a largely rural county in the district, recorded the state’s highest rate of absentee ballot requests: 7.5 percent of registered voters, compared with less than 3 percent in most counties. An unusually large number of them, 40 percent, were never returned. Even more, 62 percent, were unreturned in neighboring Robeson County. No other county had an unreturned rate higher than 27 percent. And according to an analysis by The News & Observer, the unreturned ballots — especially in Robeson County — were “disproportionately associated with minority voters,” who tend to vote for Democrats. — Harris won 61 percent of submitted absentee ballots in Bladen County, even though registered Republicans accounted for only 19 percent of the ballots submitted. To do that, he would have had to win essentially every independent who voted absentee, as well as some registered Democrats. In every other county in the district — even strongly Republican ones — McCready won the absentee vote. — In an affidavit sent to the elections board, one Bladen County resident, Datesha Montgomery, said a woman had come to her door in October and collected her absentee ballot, which is illegal in North Carolina. Montgomery said that she had voted only for sheriff and school board, and that the woman “said she would finish it herself.” Another resident, Emma Shipman, said in an affidavit that a woman had similarly collected her ballot, which was unsealed and unsigned. A third, Lucy Young, said she had received an absentee ballot even though she had not requested one. — Harris’ campaign paid more than $400,000 to the consulting firm Red Dome during the election cycle, and even routed its payroll through the firm, rather than paying workers directly — an unusual practice, though not unheard-of. One of Red Dome’s contractors was McCrae Dowless, a longtime figure in North Carolina politics who is known for get-out-the-vote campaigns based heavily on absentee ballots. Dowless was convicted of felony perjury and insurance fraud in the early 1990s. — On Monday, Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, named Joshua Malcolm as chairman of the elections board. Malcolm, a Democrat who had been vice chairman, succeeded another Democrat who resigned over the weekend after criticism of anti-Trump posts he had made on Twitter. An open seat will be filled by Robert Cordle, a Democrat who was previously a member of the panel. The board’s partisan makeup — four Democrats, four Republicans and an unaffiliated member — remains unchanged. — The elections board will hold an evidentiary hearing by Dec. 21. The board has the authority to order a new election if it concludes that “irregularities or improprieties occurred to such an extent that they taint the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness.” What we don’t know — Most importantly, we don’t know whether any fraud occurred. The fact that so many absentee ballots were requested but not returned could mean that partisan operatives threw away ballots, or it could be an innocent anomaly. The unusually high number of absentee ballots requested could indicate fraud, too, but it also might not. The evidence available is cause for suspicion, but nothing has been proved. — It is not clear whether the ballots in question would change the result of the election. Contrary to Republicans’ statements, it is mathematically possible: While the 679 absentee votes Harris received in Bladen and Robeson counties are not enough on their own, there may have been as many as 3,400 absentee ballots requested but not returned in those counties. But we don’t know which candidate those ballots would have gone to, or whether the people who requested them ever filled them out. — The future of the elections board itself is uncertain. It was supposed to be dissolved Monday as a result of a court ruling that the board’s composition improperly limited Cooper’s power. Republican leaders asked the court for an extension while the Ninth District investigation plays out, and the judges granted one until Dec. 12. But that is still well before the Dec. 21 deadline for the evidentiary hearing, so the investigation could still be upended by the board’s dissolution.