North Carolina Republican Mark Harris calls for new US House election

North Carolina Republican Mark Harris asked the state’s elections board on Thursday to order a new election in his congressional race, saying evidence from an investigation of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the vote.

“Through the testimony I’ve listened to in the past three days, I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh. “It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th district seat has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”

Election officials had refused to certify Harris as the victor in the disputed Nov. 6 vote, in which he appeared to prevail over Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast. Harris denied knowing about an illegal absentee ballot collection program state investigators said one of his political operatives ran.

Editing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Dan Grebler