RALEIGH — Robeson County’s representative on the state Board of Elections on Tuesday forced a delay in the certification of results in the U.S. House 9th District race.
Joshua Malcolm lives in the 9th District and made the motion to delay race certification until at least Friday, when the board is to reconvene. Malcolm’s motion cited a state law that reads the board can “take any other action necessary to assure that an election is determined without taint of fraud or corruption and without irregularities that may have changed the result of an election.”
Before board members went behind closed doors, Malcolm said he was concerned about “unfortunate activities that have been happening down in my part of the state, and I am not going to turn a blind eye to what took place to the best of my understanding.”
“We are not aware of any incidents specifically in Robeson,” said Phillip Stephens, Robeson County Republican Party chairman. “Our understanding is some questions were raised regarding Bladen County. We don’t know what specifically is the issue in Bladen. We only know where and it isn’t Robeson, to our knowledge.”
There are only two reasons to delay certification after a canvass of election results has been completed, he said.
“One is to buy time in seeking recounts,” Stephens said. “The other is to issue a challenge regarding any irregularities.”
State Elections Board members meeting voted unanimously on Tuesday to certify the final tallies in nearly all of the elections held earlier this month, but didn’t sign off on the 9th District and a handful of other races subject to protests or recounts.
Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of nearly 283,000 votes cast in all or parts of eight south-central counties encompassing the 9th. McCready won Robeson County by receiving 17,003 votes to Harris’ 12,543 and Libertarian candidate Jeff Scott’s 757. The GOP has held the district since 1963. Rep. Robert Pittenger, the incumbent, lost to Harris in the primary.
The board met privately for nearly two hours before voting in public without giving a detailed explanation.
“I can’t reveal to you things that were done in closed session,” board Chairman Andy Penry told reporters after the meeting, referring to them as “matters that are under investigation.”
Spokesmen for the Harris and McCready campaigns didn’t respond to texts Tuesday seeking comment on the board’s decision. McCready conceded the race the day after Election Day, when unofficial totals had Harris ahead by less than 1,900 votes. He didn’t change his mind later this month when additional absentee and provisional ballots counted cut the margin in half.
Harris is a Southern Baptist minister from Charlotte. Democrats nationwide have won close to 40 additional seats while taking back control of the House come January. If Harris prevails, Republicans will continue to hold 10 of the 13 seats within the North Carolina delegation.
Voting machine failures and allegations of voter fraud and suppression have been front and center during this year’s elections nationwide. North Carolina voters this month also approved a constitutional amendment this month mandating photo identification to vote in person.
In December 2016, the state board agreed to send to federal prosecutors what its staff had uncovered while scrutinizing the November 2016 election and absentee ballots in Bladen County, part of which sits in the 9th District. The board didn’t disclose what it had found.
