The North Carolina Board of Elections will hold its public evidentiary hearing into allegations of election fraud in the 9th Congressional District on February 18.
After the hearing, the newly appointed, five-member elections board will decide whether to certify Republican Mark Harris as the winner or to call for a new election. Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes.
Since November, elections board staff has been investigating possible absentee by mail fraud by political operative McCrae Dowless, who worked for Harris’ campaign.
The new board has three Democrats and two Republicans. It will take three votes to certify Harris as the winner, and four votes to call for a new election. State Republican leaders have said they see no indication that there was enough fraud to change the outcome of the race, and they have called for Harris to be seated.
The hearing will take place in Raleigh, and is expected to last two or three days.
The board had previously scheduled the hearing for December and January, but those had been cancelled.
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