The North Carolina state Board of Elections scheduled a redo of the disputed race for the state’s 9th District, generating an off-year contest in a closely divided district that will suggest which way the electorate is leaning as 2020 approaches.
Primaries will be held May 14 and the general election will be on Sept. 10.
The board in February determined the contest was corrupted by a ballot fraud scheme, and it called a new election. The decision followed a four-day hearing on the behavior of aides to Republican candidate Mark Harris, who barely led in unofficial results of the first election in November. His campaign associate, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was indicted last week on seven counts of campaign fraud in North Carolina.
According to Kim Strach, the board’s director, Dowless paid campaign operatives $150 for every 50 absentee ballot requests. Additionally, the investigation determined that the Harris campaign violated the absentee ballot process.
In total, Dowless was charged with three counts of felony obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and two counts of tampering absentee ballots.
Harris announced last week he would not run in the election, citing health reasons.
In the event that a second primary race is required, the general election will occur on Nov. 5. A second primary would be necessary if the runner-up in the contest requests a second primary in the event that no candidate receives more than 30 percent of the vote.
