NC voter: Someone collected my absentee ballot and never turned it in

A North Carolina voter is alleging that a woman collected her absentee ballot and never turned it in, an accusation that comes as the state investigates the results of a disputed U.S. House election. 

“I filled out two blocks and I gave it to her,” Datesha Montgomery said Wednesday in an interview with MSNBC, adding that her ballot was “not sealed.”

{mosads}”She said she was going to seal it, but she never sealed it in front of me,” she said. “And it never got turned in.”

WSOC-TV, a local news station in Charlotte, N.C., reported that Montgomery has made the accusation in a sworn affidavit. According to the news outlet, Montgomery said she filled out only two names on her absentee ballot and was told by a woman that she would fill out the rest. 

Montgomery identified the woman as Lisa Britt, who signed the most absentee ballot envelopes as a witness in Bladen County, N.C., according to WSOC-TV. 

“I just want justice to be served, whatever I got to do to get justice served,” Montgomery told the news station. 

Montgomery added that she had realized something might be wrong after someone knocked on her door and notified her that she hadn’t voted a day before Election Day. 

Montgomery told WSOC-TV that she later voted in person and signed an affidavit. 

The U.S. House race in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District has gained increasing attention in recent days. 

In November, Democrat Dan McCready conceded to Republican Mark Harris and said he would not request a recount after being down by about 700 votes. But the state elections board chose not to certify the results, citing “claims of irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail voting.” 

WSOC-TV reported earlier this week that it has found what appears to be a targeted effort to illegally pick up ballots in Bladen County.

Two women have told the news outlet that an electioneer, Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., paid them to collect absentee ballots for last month’s midterm elections. 

Both of them said that instead of mailing the ballots, they handed them over to Dowless, who has reportedly been named in sworn affidavits as someone who worked for Harris’s campaign. 

State investigators went to Bladen County as part of their investigation on Wednesday, according to WSOC-TV. 

Multiple Democratic lawmakers have voiced concerns regarding the issues in the North Carolina race. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the vice ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called for an emergency hearing regarding the allegations of election fraud on Wednesday.