North Carolina's 9th congressional district

Counties in the 2023–2025 district map:

• Chatham County
• Cumberland County (part)
• Harnett County (part)
• Hoke County
• Lee County
• Moore County
• Randolph County
• Richmond County (part)
• Scotland County

In the Republican primary incumbent Robert Pittenger was defeated by former pastor Mark Harris, who had closely challenged him two years earlier.[14] Harris won 48.5 percent of the vote to Pittenger's 46.2 percent.[15]

The New York Times described the election between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready as a "top-tier contest".[16] In results on election day, Harris defeated McCready by 905 votes, but on November 27, 2018, the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Reform declined to certify the election results, citing voting irregularities involving absentee ballots.[17][18] The irregularities in counting and handling of absentee ballots became the subject of a criminal investigation.[19]

Outlets such as the Associated Press[20] and FiveThirtyEight[21] subsequently retracted calling the race, pending the decision of the state board of elections. On December 1, the chair of the state elections board resigned, saying: "The investigation of criminal conduct and absentee voting fraud in the 2018 Republican primary and 2018 general election in congressional district 9 is a matter of vital importance to our democracy", adding that "I will not allow myself to be used as an instrument of distraction in this investigation".[22]

On November 30, the election board of the district decided to hear evidence about "claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities" at a meeting to be held by December 21. A finding of fraud could have resulted in a new election.[23]

On December 5, 2018, independent investigative reporting of the alleged vote thefts detailed a practice that targeted southern rural elderly black voters in the 9th district congressional race and termed the affair, "...the most serious federal election tampering case in years." Campaign workers revealed that the vote tampering went on in a pervasively chaotic atmosphere. Operatives tracked votes and field workers "...would come to your house, they would get you to fill out an absentee ballot to be sent to your house. They would go back and pick it up and then seal it and then find two witnesses," to certify their validity. Such handling of ballots and completed applications by other than board and postal workers is legally prohibited. An informant tabulated the number of ballots delivered to the county election board and said an indicted leader gave the Harris campaign updates on the operation's most recent totals. The leader was employed by Red Dome political consultants which received over $428,000 from the Harris campaign. The informant had delivered 185 absentee ballot applications and the leader personally delivered 592 more.[24] On December 6, Democratic candidate McCready withdrew his earlier submitted election concession.[25] Republican candidate Harris agreed for a new election to be held if allegations of election fraud could be proven by the election board to have affected the contest's outcome.[26] The leader of the North Carolina Republicans, Robin Hayes, stated on December 11 that, regardless to what extent election fraud could be proven to have altered the election, a new election would be necessary in the state's 9th congressional district if investigators can verify a local newspaper report that early voting results in Bladen County were leaked before Election Day.[27][28]

On December 28, the state court dissolved the state election board, before it had certified election results.[29][30] The election board's staff announced that it would continue the investigation, but delayed hearings until a new election board was seated, presumably on January 31.[31][32] Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's attempts to fill an interim board were overridden by the Republican-controlled legislature.[29] Incoming United States House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, announced that the House of Representatives would not seat Harris under any circumstances until the fraud investigation is completed.[33] Harris announced he would seek court intervention to have him immediately certified as the winner and stated his intention to join the 116th Congress on January 3.[34][35] However, Harris was not permitted to join the new Congress on January 3.

On February 21, the bipartisan state board of elections voted to hold a new election, because, according to board chairman Bob Cordle, "irregularities and improprieties ... tainted the results ... and cast doubt on its fairness."[36] A newly passed law by the North Carolina state legislature will require the parties to hold new primaries before the general election for this seat.[37][38][39][40] Harris has said that he will not run again.

• List of United States congressional districts
• North Carolina's congressional districts

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

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