Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Wednesday called for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to hold an emergency hearing on allegations of election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.
Connolly, the vice ranking member of the committee, said in a statement that “real election fraud is playing out right before us in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District,” where some voters have said their absentee ballots were collected illegally.
{mosads}”We should see every action they take to ignore this situation for what it is – a slap in the face to all voters in North Carolina who participated in the 2018 election with the expectation that every vote would be counted,” Connolly said.
“Votes have been stolen by preying on senior and minority voters, and now a cloud of doubt and suspicion hangs over this election result. It is incumbent on Chairman [Trey] Gowdy [R-S.C.] to hold an emergency hearing before the end of this congressional session so that we can shed light and understand what happened in this race,” he added.
Republican Mark Harris has a narrow lead over Democrat Dan McCready in the district, but a number of voters have claimed since Election Day that their absentee ballots were illegally collected, putting the final results in question. It’s unclear whether their votes were counted.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has declined to certify the results of the election amid the allegations, and it’s possible that either the board or the U.S. House of Representatives will call for a new election.