North Carolina Democrat Dan McCready says he is withdrawn his concession to GOP opponent Mark Harris amid allegations of electoral fraud with absentee mail-in ballots.
In an interview with WSOC-TV on Thursday, McCready charged the Republican — who reportedly holds an unofficial 905-vote lead in the race to replace outgoing Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C. — "bankrolled this criminal activity."
"I call on Mark Harris to tell the American people exactly what he knew and when he knew it," he told the news outlet.
The North Carolina Board of Elections voted not to certify the election results as it investigates allegations of electoral fraud and other voting irregularities related to absentee ballots — centering around a high number of absentee vote requests in Bladen County as well as a big batch of unreturned ballots, and canvassers who illegally collected ballots from some voters.
Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., who worked as an independent contractor for Harris' campaign, is at the center of the probe, The Hill reported.
Dowless, a Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor who in the 1990s was convicted of fraud and felony perjury, was named by a few absentee ballot witnesses who said they were paid by him to collect ballots, the news outlet reported.
In addition to the elections board, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has opened a criminal probe into Bladen County absentee ballots from the 2018 primary and general elections as well as the 2016 election.
Freeman's investigation has looked into potential absentee ballot fraud by Dowless and two other groups, WSOC-TV has reported.
Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, told The Hill that Republicans would be open to a new election if the state Board of Elections "can show a substantial likelihood" the absentee ballot fraud could have changed the outcome of the election.
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