North Carolina Legislature Calls for New Primary if New Election Is Held in Disputed District

The legislation, if signed by the governor, means Republicans would get to choose whether to stick with Harris, who appeared to have narrowly won a primary and general election — both now buffeted by allegations of irregularities including tainted absentee ballots — or replace him in the general election.

Harris appeared to have won the November general election against his Democratic opponent, Dan McCready, by 905 votes.

The state Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement refused to certify the election last month and could order the election to be conducted a second time. The board plans to hold a hearing in the next few days or weeks to explore whether absentee ballots were illegally handled or altered by L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a political operative who worked for Harris.

Harris has denied wrongdoing, and party officials have not publicly backed away from their support of his candidacy.

The legislation approved Wednesday, first by the state House and soon after by the state Senate, opens the possibility that Robert Pittenger, the incumbent, could again face off against Harris in a rematch of the Republican primary that Harris won with the help of a significant number of absentee votes.

Dowless, who has declined to comment, has a criminal history that includes felony convictions for fraud and perjury. He has been named as a “person of interest” in the state board’s investigation into whether he or people working for him illegally handled or manipulated absentee ballots.

North Carolina law prohibits anyone who is not a close relative of a voter from touching absentee ballots.

In addition to the questions about irregularities involving absentee ballots, North Carolina Democrats in recent days have said that officials in Bladen County had secretly released the results of early voting to Republicans, providing Republicans with a decisive strategic advantage.

The Democratic Party released an affidavit by Agnes Willis, an assistant who worked at the elections board in Bladen County, who said that on Nov. 3, the last day of early voting, the tape showing election results “was run after the polls closed, and was viewed by officials” who were not election judges.

A lawyer for the Democrats later wrote to the state board, saying that Democrats had learned that Bladen County officials had illegally leaked absentee vote totals to Republicans but had withheld them from Democrats.

Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, said this week that party officials were “pretty certain” that data had been leaked in Bladen County. He said that calling for a new election should not be done lightly.

“Losing those legally cast votes is a dark day for democracy in North Carolina,” he said Tuesday. “It is an atrocious result. However, the most important thing is that people in the 9th Congressional District have confidence that the person who represents them in Washington is there with the support of the voters.”

Woodhouse described Harris as “a man of high integrity and honor.”

“I think we all believe in him,” he said. “We know him to be a good man. That is our only experience with him.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.