NC election officials warned federal prosecutors about alleged fraud in 2017: report

North Carolina election officials reportedly issued a plea in 2017 for federal prosecutors to file criminal charges against people who became the focus of ballot fraud allegations this year.

The Associated Press reported Friday that a letter sent from State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach to the then-U.S. Attorney John Bruce of the Eastern District of North Carolina warned that if individuals who engaged in efforts to “manipulate election results through the absentee ballot process” were not prosecuted then the violations would “likely continue for future elections.”

{mosads}“Our findings to date suggest that individuals and potentially groups of individuals engaged in efforts to manipulate election results through the absentee ballot process,” Strach wrote in the letter regarding alleged absentee ballot fraud in Bladen County, according to The Washington Post. “The evidence we have obtained suggest that these efforts may have taken place in the past and if not addressed will likely continue for future elections.”

The latest development comes amid mounting allegations of fraud and calls for a new race between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

Harris leads McCready by 905 votes, but the state board has decided not to certify the race results as more details emerge regarding allegations of electoral fraud involving absentee ballots in rural Bladen County and neighboring Robeson County.

Republican leaders in North Carolina claimed this week that the state’s elections board did not adequately investigate previous allegations of fraud in Bladen County.

Strach’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.