Congressional Special Election (last call! unstickied after NY-27 final results)

[The Mikado]

https://twitter.com/allymutnick/status/1070723409905098752

NRCC Chair open to special election.

[lfromnj]

https://twitter.com/allymutnick/status/1070723409905098752

NRCC Chair open to special election.

bagel:
NRCC chair is clearly a democrat hack who wants to ruin his own party
Also bagel on Steve king
The NRCC chair is also a d hack who hates his own party policies.

[RogueBeaver]

https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1070715650392424448

[Landslide Lyndon]

"I did not have electoral relations with that man"

[The Mikado]

https://twitter.com/MichaelPerchick/status/1070719496506224640

https://twitter.com/MichaelPerchick/status/1070724136144646144

Why is it a thing that people on this site are more supportive of Harris than either the North Carolina GOP or the GOP nationally, all of whom seem OK with redoing the race?

[lfromnj]

https://twitter.com/MichaelPerchick/status/1070719496506224640

https://twitter.com/MichaelPerchick/status/1070724136144646144

Why is it a thing that people on this site are more supportive of Harris than either the North Carolina GOP or the GOP nationally, all of whom seem OK with redoing the race?

even the folks on RRH are less supportive of Harris besides Krazen and Honeybee.

[jimrtex]

Called it:

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1070102416828325896

Virginia, what would the bill H 1117 do?

Not Virginia, but HB 1117 would revert the state & county election boards back to where they started before the past nearly 2 years of legislative & judicial maneuvering regarding the boards. The potential change back to 3-member county boards comes after an October decision by a 3-judge panel in Wake County that ruled the current makeup that was implemented in December 2016 is unconstitutional (the court left the current 9-member board in place until Dec. 12th while the election investigation is underway) & after NC voters declined to give lawmakers power over the elections board through a constitutional amendment.

Basically, the bill would have the county election boards revert back to 3 members. Out of those 3-member county boards, 2 of the members will have members from the Governor's party. The state board would go from the current 9-member configuration of 4 Republicans, 4 Democrats & 1 independent voter to 5 members, with 3 from the Governor's party.

In particular, the bill would once again split the agency under the oversight of two boards. The 5-member board, controlled by the Governor, would handle only the administration of elections. As has been the practice in the past, the Governor would appoint 3 members of his own party & 2 members of the other major party from lists of candidates recommended by the respective party leaders. A 2nd, 8-member bipartisan board would handle ethics, campaign finance & lobbying, w/ 1/2 the board appointed by the Governor & the other 1/2 by state lawmakers.

At the county level, the 4-member bipartisan boards instituted by lawmakers but scuttled by the courts would return to their traditional 3-member format, w/ the state board appointing the members and the Governor's party having a 2-1 majority. However, the law would still require Republicans on each county board to serve as chair in election years.

The bill would also repeal the long-standing law that state political investigations are handled by the Wake County District Attorney's Office, moving those investigations instead to the prosecutorial district in which the candidate resides.

The proposal would also repeal 6 boards & commissions whose structures were found unconstitutional by judges last month: the State Building Commission, the Child Care Commission, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund Board of Trustees, the state Parks & Recreation Authority, the Private Protective Services Board, & the Rural Infrastructure Authority.

And in what appears to be a rebuke, the measure would repeal the Constitutional Amendment Publication Commission, the 3-member panel charged w/ writing descriptions of proposed constitutional amendments for voter information materials. The 2 Democrats on the commission this year, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall & Attorney General Josh Stein, were outspoken on their opinion that state lawmakers wrote deceptive ballot descriptions of the 6 proposed amendments in the the November election. 4 of the 6 were approved.

However, the bill is likely to change in its next version after having been heard in the House Elections committee.

Thanks for the rundown. That is what I generally thought it did.

My understanding is that the October court decision rendered the current statutes inoperative, and meant that the former statutes were active, though no longer statutes. This is fine for lawyers, who can read the annotation "Ignore This, Go Read the Old Statute", but is confusing to others. This bill would simply factually make the statutes match the law. I noticed it gave the code reviser the authority to make sure all the section numbers and references are the same.

Then they took prosecuting authority from the Wake County (Raleigh) prosecutor. This is similar to what happened in Texas, where Travis County elected Democratic prosecutors and judges, and the state had placed an agency of the state under the Travis County DA. The DA for Travis County was arrested for DUI (she was driving about 15 MPH on the edge of a road with an emptied bottle of vodka, and then was extremely belligerent at the jail, where she had to be belted to a chair. It doesn't help to demanding to see the sheriff and telling everyone who you are, if you are slurring your words and are kicking). Governor Perry vetoed funding for the unit, saying he would sign the bill if the DA resigned. She refused. Perry was actually charged with bribery - withholding funding in exchange for forcing an elected official from office. Eventually, he was acquitted because a governor can veto a bill for whatever reason he desires. The DA took a leave absence for the time she was locked up and going under rehab. She did not seek re-election.

The unit was eventually transferred to the Texas Rangers, which is under state control.

My understanding is that the NC court, stayed the reversion of the NCSBE until they certified the results of the election. I think Harris has intervened in that case to keep the current body until his election is certified (i.e. if the board doesn't certify the election it is not replaced).

The wording of the resolution that called for an evidentiary hearing was carefully worded since it calls for a hearing by the board "as then constituted" which meant that the five-member board appointed by Cooper would decide the case. There was another election case which was left out of the resolution. Someone asked about the omission. It was explained that it was not certified, but not in limbo because of that. But there must have been a reason for leaving it out of the unit.

I suspect what happened is that after it was seen how close the NC-9 race was that Joshua Malcolm raised the issue of the ongoing investigation in Bladen County. His resolution states that it is the "taint of corruption", rather than the number of votes that might have been affected. If the race had been further apart, the investigation might have eventually concluded with some indictments. Nexus for Wake County, is likely based on Red Dome being HQ'ed there.

The Republicans probably scored an own goal by demanding the resignation of the chair of the NCSBE because of his Facebook hackery, but now Malcolm is the chair and will be the chair of the 5-member board, unless it is revealed to what extent Malcolm was communicating with Cooper, the DCCC, etc.

Marc Elias should be considered a red flag. He and Perkins Coie were the ones who funneled money from the Clinton campaign for the Russian dossier (it showed up as legal fees on Clinton campaign expenditures). The dossier was used to justify the FISA warrant for Carter Page.

Lawyers are paid by their clients to paint a particular viewpoint, to shade the truth, as advocates for the client.

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex- I’m loving your narrative technique: Pizza box under laundry? Goldmine! In earlier posts the down South repartee! LOL, man!

Didn't you see the CNN interview where the voter admitted that Dowless had helped him fill out his ballot because he couldn't read or write. Let's humiliate the Southern hick on national TV.

The other voter who said he couldn't remember whether he voted for "Harris" or "McCready" is a registered Republican. He did remember who he voted for sheriff. Why didn't the reporter ask him whether he had voted for McVicker or Brown?

Who did the CNN reporter vote for?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Jimrtex- I’m loving your narrative technique: Pizza box under laundry? Goldmine! In earlier posts the down South repartee! LOL, man!

Didn't you see the CNN interview where the voter admitted that Dowless had helped him fill out his ballot because he couldn't read or write. Let's humiliate the Southern hick on national TV.

The other voter who said he couldn't remember whether he voted for "Harris" or "McCready" is a registered Republican. He did remember who he voted for sheriff. Why didn't the reporter ask him whether he had voted for McVicker or Brown?

Who did the CNN reporter vote for?

Dude, the NC GOP chairman admits that something fishy happened and is OK with a revote.
What are you trying to do here? Is Harris your uncle or something?

[JerryArkansas]

Jimrtex- I’m loving your narrative technique: Pizza box under laundry? Goldmine! In earlier posts the down South repartee! LOL, man!

Didn't you see the CNN interview where the voter admitted that Dowless had helped him fill out his ballot because he couldn't read or write. Let's humiliate the Southern hick on national TV.

The other voter who said he couldn't remember whether he voted for "Harris" or "McCready" is a registered Republican. He did remember who he voted for sheriff. Why didn't the reporter ask him whether he had voted for McVicker or Brown?

Who did the CNN reporter vote for?

Dude, the NC GOP chairman admits that something fishy happened and is OK with a revote.
What are you trying to do here? Is Harris your uncle or something?

I don't know why he is considered by everyone here such a great person.  He's a partisan hack.  It comes across here and when he does his "fair and nonpartisan" numbers based redistricting.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

I don't see how there can be anything other than a new election at this point. It probably should include a new primary as well - it is not fair to Pittinger otherwise since this seems to have also at least potentially happened in the primary as well, but I don't know whether that is legally possible or not since the primary was already certified.

[Tender Branson]

There definitely has to be a new election.

I have not followed the recent events, but if the vote fraud was already existing in the primary then there should also be a new primary and a new GE.

The vote fraud is pretty clear and if Austria's Constitutional Court ordered a new Presidential (!) election runoff because of "sloppiness" (there was no vote fraud at all here, btw) - then there should definitely be a new vote in NC for much more serious offenses ...

[Nyvin]

Haha!

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1070543855924244481

[lfromnj]

Couldn't Harris just move to the south carolina exurbs of Charlotte?

[RogueBeaver]

Pittenger's people claim they told the state and national parties, national denies and state says they didn't look into it closely.

[Virginiá]

Pittenger's people claim they told the state and national parties, national denies and state says they didn't look into it closely.

Why let a little fraud get in the way of winning?

[RogueBeaver]

https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1070803453449068544

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/JoeBrunoWSOC9/status/1070803453449068544

https://twitter.com/McCreadyForNC/status/1070808315658190848

[jimrtex]

Why do you keep bringing up different data and not responding to the data I and others bring up? You implied Harris’ 61% in absentee was in line with his ED vote in Bladen. Do you now see it’s a red flag?

The reason why is that I am capable of looking at data and making an independent conclusion.

Others (perhaps including you) have certain prejudices.

You should consider a third category here besides 1) election data and 2) personal prejudices. The third category is artifacts from the reporting and incipient criminal case here which is being heavily investigated and reported on and which led the bi-partisan board of elections to refuse to certify the election.

You haven't made the argument for throwing all of that out and only considering speculative and possibly tendentious interpretations of data in order to reach a conclusion. And it looks like you're choosing not to engage with what's being reported or investigated, and that's confusing.

What is being "reported" is incomplete or biased.

It seems that you are suggesting if something is "reported" it is facially truthful and complete.

Have you spent any time looking at the actual data dumps from the NCSBE?

Have you spent any time comparing the population of the votes cast in different precincts relative to their population?

Did you notice that three One Stop locations from 2016 were not operated in 2018, and that election turnout was up in those precincts relative to 2016, even though overall turnout was down.

Have you looked at past elections results from Bladen County?

[Badger]

Why do you keep bringing up different data and not responding to the data I and others bring up? You implied Harris’ 61% in absentee was in line with his ED vote in Bladen. Do you now see it’s a red flag?

The reason why is that I am capable of looking at data and making an independent conclusion.

Others (perhaps including you) have certain prejudices.

You should consider a third category here besides 1) election data and 2) personal prejudices. The third category is artifacts from the reporting and incipient criminal case here which is being heavily investigated and reported on and which led the bi-partisan board of elections to refuse to certify the election.

You haven't made the argument for throwing all of that out and only considering speculative and possibly tendentious interpretations of data in order to reach a conclusion. And it looks like you're choosing not to engage with what's being reported or investigated, and that's confusing.

What is being "reported" is incomplete or biased.

It seems that you are suggesting if something is "reported" it is facially truthful and complete.

Have you spent any time looking at the actual data dumps from the NCSBE?

Have you spent any time comparing the population of the votes cast in different precincts relative to their population?

Did you notice that three One Stop locations from 2016 were not operated in 2018, and that election turnout was up in those precincts relative to 2016, even though overall turnout was down.

Have you looked at past elections results from Bladen County?

Jimtex, you offer generally very good observations on the redistricting board. However, your "analysis" here is bordering on JJ level obstinacy.

Try to concede that the North Carolina Republican party might have a point in saying that things are obviously fishy here?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Harris and Dowless will be at their sentencing hearings and jimrtex will still argue how he can statistically prove that everything is fine.

[Badger]

I have to say, although the closest of the primary and the insanely suspicious absentee ballot totals in Bladen County scream voter fraud, is that truly enough to order a new primary election? That was several months ago and it seems to me hitting her has foregone any right to challenge that reason salt as the deadlines for doing so have a long long past. The fact that such fraud was discovered during the general election shouldn't necessarily reopen the door. Frankly, he's make comments that he knew just what kind of sleazebags were operating in Bladen County, and those numbers should have warranted his calling for a full and complete investigation which would have likely uncovered this stuff. Hell, didn't take journalists much Beyond knocking on a few doors and asking questions.

I admit, part of this is me wanting to see Harris collapse like the Hindenburg when he goes to the polls again, and to avoid any chance that Republicans rally enough to beat McCready in a special election. They forfeited this seat and deserve to lose.

[ag]

Again, the fraud here cannot be proven or disproven purely by looking at the stats. The stats can be useful to a) get some indication whether something strange happened and whether an investigation is warranted and b) assuming the wrongdoing is shown, to get some idea of its scale. But actual finding of wrongdoing would have to primarily rely on establishing what happened on the ground: affidavits, testimony, paper trail, etc.

If all there were to go by were the statistical anomalies, in the absence of other evidence I would still argue that Harris should be seated. I mean, one could imagine that there indeed was an efficient vote-by-mail operation on one side, and that could account for many of the apparent anomalies. Alas, it seems, evidence is rapidly accumulating that law was violated. And that evidence cannot be overturned by explaning away statistical anomalies. At this point, it seems, not only repeating the election, but also criminal prosecution may be warranted.

[jimrtex]

ONLY ON 3: Bladen County voter fraud accusations investigated

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Fair use precludes me from quoting the entire article, but fill free to click on the link for a trip down memory lane - it's from 2010.

[Virginiá]

Personally, I'd rather just watch this play out and see what an investigation turns up. You know, those investigations full of officials who make the decision of whether fraud occurred and whether enough of it occurred to make a new election necessary. They have access to much more information than we do. I'm not interested in doing my own amateur analysis, let alone before the actual election officials themselves have even come to their own conclusion.