North Carolina

[*bfine32*]

(12-07-2018, 12:50 PM)fredtoast Wrote: All of these free photo ID cards are going to cost the government a lot of money.

So shouldn't we have some proof of a problem before we start wasting more tax money?

When I was born people did not even have a photo on a drivers license.  How did we ever have fair elections over the first 200 years in this country?

I thought you said we didn't have fair elections the first couple hundred years. Poll taxes and the such.

Reducing voter fraud should not be a partisan issue.

Of course the framers rode horse and buggy to vote, that doesn't mean we should not modernize as society requires.  

[fredtoast]

(12-07-2018, 01:03 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Reducing voter fraud should not be a partisan issue.

It isn't.

Democrats are just as concerned about voter fraud as Republicans because Republicans commit voter fraud just as much as Democrats.  All the tangible evidence proves this.

But voter ID laws are not about reducing voter fraud.  They are about making it harder for the poor to vote.  And since poor people are more likely to vote for democrats voter ID laws are a partisan issue.

[Dill]

(12-06-2018, 09:33 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Since you won't have an SSN without being a citizen, that verification is how they get that proof.

Actually, non-citizens can get social security cards and receive social security benefits, can't they?

[fredtoast]

(12-07-2018, 05:01 PM)Dill Wrote: Actually, non-citizens can get social security cards and receive social security benefits, can't they?

Yes they can, but I assumed their numbers would be flagged if they tried to register to vote.

[Belsnickel]

(12-07-2018, 05:01 PM)Dill Wrote: Actually, non-citizens can get social security cards and receive social security benefits, can't they?

Huh, so they can. I always assumed they just issued them a TIN.

[Belsnickel]

(12-07-2018, 05:08 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Yes they can, but I assumed their numbers would be flagged if they tried to register to vote.

Yeah, it's not like they just take it at face value.

[GMDino]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/12/18137552/north-carolina-election-fraud-9th-district-dallas-woodhouse

Quote:North Carolina GOP admits a new House election is probably needed after election fraud scandal
State officials have discretion under state law to call for a new election if the basic fairness of the election is in question.


North Carolina Republican leaders sound resigned to the obvious: Given the evidence of absentee ballot tampering in the Ninth Congressional District, the subject of a state inquiry, a new election will likely need to be called.


State GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse stopped just short Tuesday of formally asking for a new election between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready. But he did say that if early voting totals were leaked, a new election would be necessary — and one of the sworn affidavits that blew up this entire scandal describes exactly that.
View image on Twitter

Quote:
[/url]Joe Bruno

@JoeBrunoWSOC9




BREAKING: NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse calls for a new #NC09 election and primary, if early voting totals were leaked by elections officials. He says they are pretty certain that happened #ncpol @wsoctv

354
4:33 PM - Dec 11, 2018

295 people are talking about this


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Quote:
Nick Ochsner

@NickOchsnerWBTV




New: NCGOP Exec. Director @DallasWoodhouse tells me Party will call for a new #nc09 election based on affidavit (submitted by NCDP) that early voting totals were run before Election Day. Standby for more details on that. Says NCSBE should take over Bladen BOE #ncpol

116
12:09 PM - Dec 11, 2018
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In one of the affidavits submitted by Democratic attorneys to the North Carolina elections board, a woman said she saw unusual activity at a polling site: election results being run after polls closed on the last day of early voting and observed by people who were not elections judges, which she understood to be “improper.” The person said she also helped tabulate absentee ballots after the election that were quite worn and had “coding” written on them.

The state board has discretion under state law to call for a new election if the basic fairness of the election is in question. The board already unanimously agreed not to certify the Ninth District’s results because of the fraud allegations.



The strange tales of vote counts being leaked aren’t isolated. Voters have also said an unidentified woman picked up their ballots, in another apparent violation of state law, and an unusually high number of absentee ballots were requested in the Ninth but never returned. A local Republican operative working in support of the Harris campaign has been implicated as the ringleader of the ballot tampering scheme.


North Carolina Republicans originally threatened to sue the elections board if it refused to certify the Ninth results. But they have since backed all the way down from that threat and are now effectively calling for a new election. It has since been revealed that the state party may have been privy to allegations of unusual activity in the district during the GOP primary in May when Harris upset incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger, as the Washington Post reported.

The state board has said it would hold a hearing of the evidence of fraud on or before December 21.

[GMDino]

Lisa Britt, McCrae Dowless's step-daughter.

ATTORNEY: If it was unsealed and the ballot was not completely voted, you would fill in the other offices?
BRITT: Yes ma'am.
...
ATTORNEY: And who would have directed you to do that?
BRITT: Well we were directed by Mr. Dowless. pic.twitter.com/bcI0iyrddt

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 18, 2019

https://www.wral.com/key-witness-won-t-testify-in-9th-district-hearing-while-others-detail-scheme-to-collect-absentee-ballots/18201171/

Quote:Key witness won't testify in 9th District hearing, while others detail scheme to collect absentee ballots

RALEIGH, N.C. — The key figure in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District election controversy won't testify in the state's ongoing hearings into ballot irregularities, his attorney announced Monday.


Bladen County political operative McCrae Dowless was willing to take the stand if compelled, a legal maneuver that would have given him immunity under state law to anything he testified to, attorney Cynthia Singletary said.


The State Board of Elections wasn't willing to go that route, asking Dowless to testify voluntarily, as two of his underlings, his ex-wife and two Bladen County voters did Monday.


Board Chairman Robert Cordle warned Dowless that the board might "take negative inferences" from his refusal as it weighs whether to call a new election in the 9th District. But Dowless is likely the subject of an ongoing criminal inquiry to the absentee ballot accusations, and though his attorney said he's innocent, she was not willing to put him on the stand in the state board's hearings.


"As a defense attorney, it's just not good practice," Singletary said.

That's how the first day of the hearings ended. It began with Lisa Britt, one of Dowless' most active lieutenants in an apparent scheme to collect absentee ballots from voters in Bladen and Robeson counties, testifying that Dowless paid her and others to collect ballots.


That's a felony under North Carolina law, due to tampering concerns. Britt also said she filled out as many as 10 partially blank ballots, mostly voting them for Republicans in down-ballot races.


"You were voting other people's ballots," said Marc Elias, lead attorney for the second-place finisher in the 9th District race, Democrat Dan McCready.


"Yes, sir," Britt replied.


Britt said she never marked any ballots, though, for Mark Harris, the Republican with a 905-vote lead in the race. She testified that voters had already filled out that part of the ballot.

What's at stake
Another woman who worked with Dowless, Kelly Hendrix, testified that she collected ballots as well, but they were always sealed by the time she got them. At least two other women who worked for Dowless have told reporters they collected ballots, and they may be called to testify later this week.


Much of Britt's testimony was a reversal. She told media outlets for weeks that she never took anyone's ballot, but said on the stand Monday that she lied and had probably collected 35 to 40 of them. She said Dowless initially paid $120 for every 50 ballots but changed that to $200 a week when ballots proved hard to come by.

9th District: Dowless crew handled 1 in 5 absentee votes in Bladen County
Elias was quick to point out that more than $131,000 flowed to Dowless through Red Dome, a consulting group that worked for Harris' campaign. Red Dome's lead consultant for the campaign may testify in the hearings later this week. Harris is expected to testify as well, his legal team said Monday.


Britt also testified that Dowless reached out to her as recently as Thursday to keep her from going against him in the hearings. 


She said Dowless gave her and her mother, who is also Dowless' ex-wife, a suggested statement, which was put into evidence Monday.


"I can tell you that I haven't done anything wrong in the election and McCrae Dowless has never told me to do anything wrong and to my knowledge has never done anything wrong," the note stated.


This was at least the second time since November's election that Dowless tried to throw investigators off his scent, Britt testified. At an earlier meeting, she said, Dowless called a group of his campaign workers together to say "as long as we all stick together we'll be fine, because they don't have anything on us."

Plenty of NC politicos hired McCrae Dowless; they just don't want to talk about it
State Board of Elections Director Kim Strach said in her opening statements Monday that board investigators interviewed 142 voters in the inquiry, as well as 30 others involved in the case. They pulled phone and financial records and will prove, Strach said, that Dowless directed people to collect absentee ballots, including some incomplete and unsealed.


They were mailed to the local board of elections in small batches to avoid drawing attention, Strach said, and Dowless instructed his workers on details down to stamps and signature ink colors to avoid drawing attention from elections officials.


Investigators were not able to prove that early voting totals were shared prematurely with either campaign in the 9th District race, Strach said. That had been suspected, since Bladen County's early voting totals were run early, and North Carolina Republican Party officials said weeks ago this alone would be enough to force a new election. But Strach told board members Monday that her team was "unable to confirm" the totals were divulged.


She noted a number concerns, though, with security in the Bladen County Board of Elections office, including a marked key to the ballot room hanging on a wall.


Witnesses repeatedly described Dowless Monday as a father figure, a kind man who helped them out of jams. Britt said she lived with Dowless long after he and her mother, Sandra Dowless, divorced in the early 1990s. Sandra Dowless said she lived with Dowless for six months last year while recovering from surgery.


Hendrix broke into tears at the start of her testimony, saying Dowless reminded her of her father. Kimberly Robinson, one of two voters who testified Monday, said she trusted Dowless to tell her whom to vote for in past years and gave her blank ballot last year to a woman who worked with Lisa Britt.


"McCrae, he normally helped me," Robinson said. "He told me who to elect."


There were a number of confusing moments and conflicting statements Monday. Britt said she collected only one unsealed ballot, but Robinson said Britt was driving the vehicle when her unsealed ballot was picked up.

Britt also said she returned collected ballots to Brenda and Timothy Outlaw, but Timothy Outlaw told WRAL News in a telephone interview later that's not true.

Complete coverage


Some of Monday's testimony dealt with the Bladen County Improvement Association, a political action committee that helps black politicians and Democrats in the county. A trio of PAC operatives witnessed dozens of absentee ballots during last year's elections, and a voter named Precious Hall testified Monday that two of them – Lola Wooten and Sandra Guions – collected her completed and sealed ballot last year.


Hall confirmed that she's a registered Democrat and voted like one in the 2018 election.


Britt testified that there was some sort of agreement between Dowless and the BCIA and that Wooten would use Dowless' photocopier to copy ballot request forms. Britt said she was not to collect ballots from voters Wooten and her team targeted.


"Sort of staying off each other's turf?" Harris attorney David Freedman said.


"Yes, sir," Britt replied.


At one point, Britt called the arrangement "kind of Dowless' secret weapon," but it wasn't clear what she meant.
BCIA attorney Irving Joyner said the group wasn't involved with Dowless. He and other BCIA officials have repeatedly denied any coordinated PAC effort to collect ballots last year.


Britt also testified that she returned a ballot to a voter named Emma Shipman at BCIA President Horace Munn's request. Munn denied that in an interview with WRAL News, saying he never made that request.


Munn said it's unclear what was going on with Wooten's photocopying.

"There's something to that," he said. "But that has nothing to do with my organization ... if she did it."

[GMDino]

The tl;dr version:

All the evidence points toward fraud.  Harris (the republican) decides he's "too sick" to move forward and agrees there should be a new election then he drops out.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/698265649/n-c-republican-at-center-of-election-fraud-case-wont-run-in-special-election

Meanwhile Mitch McConnell tries to use this as an example of VOTER fraud when it is clearly not.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/26/18241652/mitch-mcconnell-north-carolina-election-fraud-scandal

Don't like to read?  Listen to it being explained by the people covering it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/podcasts/the-daily/election-fraud-north-carolina.html

If I can editorialize for a minute: I have no doubt this has gone one (and goes on) a lot more than it gets caught. In this instance they got greedy and overshot the numbers in a county that made it stand out too much. Greed is what usually catches these type of people so power hungry they will do anything to win.

[GMDino]

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/56344565_982268461977843_4364078834530648064_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=6d504d83499327a890b8554983b65a1c&oe=5D0B9AC4

Quote:Chair of North Carolina GOP, others indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges


(CNN)Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment charging North Carolina State Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes and three associates in an alleged bribery scheme involving campaign contributions to the state insurance commissioner.



Hayes, along with political and business figures Greg Lindberg, John Gray and John Palermo, made initial appearances in US District Court in Charlotte Tuesday.


"The indictment unsealed today outlines a brazen bribery scheme in which Greg Lindberg and his co-conspirators allegedly offered hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for official action that would benefit Lindberg's business interests," Brian Benczkowski, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a news release.


The March 18 indictment charges Hayes, Lindberg, Gray and Palermo with wire fraud as well as bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and aiding and abetting. Hayes also has been charged with making false statements. CNN has reached out to their attorneys.

Hayes "steadfastly denies the allegations made against him in this case,"said Kearns Davis, his attorney.


"After a long and distinguished career in public service at the local, state, and federal levels, Robin volunteered his time helping to support the party and candidates for office in North Carolina. We look forward to a swift conclusion to this matter, and to clearing his name," Davis said in a statement Tuesday.


Anne Tompkins, an attorney for Lindberg, said he maintains his innocence.


"Greg Lindberg is innocent of the charges in the indictment and we look forward to demonstrating this when we get our day in court," Tompkins said.


The alleged scheme was to pay the commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Insurance at least $1.5 million in exchange for making staff changes, among other things, the court documents say.


[/url]
[url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/politics/nc-gop-charges-read/index.html]Read: Federal bribery and corruption charges against North Carolina GOP chair, associates


The indictment comes in a year that has rocked the state's Republican Party. Last month, the North Carolina State Board of Elections set a new election in the 9th Congressional District race, having found widespread ballot fraud on behalf of Republican candidate Mark Harris. Earlier this week, Hayes announced that he would not seek re-election to run the state party.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Josh Howard -- the counsel to the North Carolina Republican Party -- said the group is cooperating with investigators.

"Early this morning, the North Carolina Republican Party was made aware of several indictments surrounding the conduct of a major donor to both major political parties and two of his associates," Howard said. "The Party has been cooperating with the investigation for several months, including staff members providing statements and responding to various document requests. The Party, which has its day to day operations managed by professional staff under the direction of the NCGOP Central Committee, remains fully operational and focused on its mission at hand."