Oh Those Tar Heels

Dramatic events in North Carolina today. There will be a new election in the NC 9th district. Yesterday, Mark Harris', the Republican candidate, son and an attorney testified that he had told his father not to hire McCrae Dowless, warned him that what Dowless was doing was illegal. Also, he testified that Dowless was hired by the campaign through a third party to keep the relationship secret. Why did the son say all this? Because he's disgusted with the way this country has devolved into an undemocratic, win at all costs, polity.

Today, after a lunchtime conference with his lawyers, Harris told the court that he had made some "misstatements," pleaded that he recently had two strokes, and ended his legal action. NC 9 will now have a new election. Harris was asked if he would run in the new election. He didn't answer, and his wife said "we'll see."

Several observations.

1. Harris is a Southern Baptist minister. Apparently, what Jesus would do is lie, cheat, steal, anything at all to win.

2. Harris knew what his campaign was doing because he ordered it to happen, according to his own son. These were not "misstatements." They were flat out lies.

3. Evangelical Christians have lost all claim to moral authority, if they ever had it at all.

4. Republicans are so upset at ballot integrity that they work hard to suppress the vote.

5. But in person voter fraud almost never happens and when it does, it is someone voting in the wrong district by accident.

6. When vote fraud does occur, it is almost always in the form of absentee ballots and this case tells you exactly why. Unless you are a complete dumbass and try to go for a blowout win like a North Korean election, you probably won't get caught.

Dowless illegally collected ballots, tossed the ones that voted for Democrats or Libertarians, filled out the ones that hadn't been completed.

Democrats have done these things in the past. I think of incidents like Hummon Talmadge's election to the Senate, pulled out at the last minute when ballots were found from his home county cast in alphabetical order by the residents of a local cemetary.

But these days, vote fraud is pretty much entirely a Republican operation, because the GOP hasn't believed in democracy since Mitch McConnell became majority leader. They see no reason why losing an election should keep them out of power. This is exactly why the party must be cast into outer darkness. It is thoroughly unAmerican, from the bottom to the top.

And McCrae Dowless needs to be in prison. Probably Mark Harris as well.

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