Article snippet: The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously Thursday to call a new election in the state’s 9th Congressional District after days of hearing evidence of alleged ballot fraud. The decision came after Republican expressed support for a new election, saying that allegations of a ballot-tampering scheme marred the current results. Harris's request for a new election was a stunning reversal for the Republican House candidate. Initial results showed Harris leading Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. But state election officials refused to the certify the Republican hopeful as the winner after they received accounts of a ballot-harvesting operation. “I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said Thursday. “It’s become clear to me that public confidence in the 9th District has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.” The vote capped off four days of witness testimonies detailing an alleged scheme by Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative hired by Harris’s campaign, to pay workers to collect absentee ballots from voters in rural Bladen County. Under North Carolina state law, only a voter or a close relative can turn in or mail an absentee ballot. The allegations have left the fate of the race for North Carolina’s 9th District in limbo for months. Since then, Democrats have called for a new election in the district, arguing that the alleged scheme had undermined confidence in the results. Republicans, meanwhile, asser... Link to the full article to read more