Democrats Call Ballot Harvesting ‘Fraud’ in North Carolina, ‘Democracy’ in California

Democrats are crying foul over alleged voter fraud in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, where Republican operative Leslie McCrae Dowless is accused of using “ballot harvesting” to help Mark Harris defeat Democrat Dan McCready.

According to the Washington Post, Dowless and his staff gathered absentee ballots from voters and offered to mail them in on the voters’ behalf. Only near relatives are allowed to do that under North Carolina law.

But in California, third parties may submit an unlimited number of mail-in ballots, thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016.

The practice of “ballot harvesting” is now thought to have had a major impact on the 2018 midterm elections in California, where several incumbent Republicans in competitive districts had healthy leads on Election Night, only to discover — weeks later, in some cases — they had lost, thanks to mail-in ballots.

When outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) criticized California’s new practice of “ballot harvesting” — which Republicans failed to utilize — last week, Democrat Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded angrily.

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