ELIZABETHTOWN — Polls will open Tuesday morning at 6:30 and close at 7:30 in the evening for the special election between four candidates vying for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

North Carolina’s 9th District has been a national headline maker since November, when the apparent outcome of the Rev. Mark Harris defeating Dan McCready was wiped away by the state Board of Elections. Its investigation resulted in no verification of the race, an evidentiary hearing that ended with even Harris saying he had doubt in the outcome, and 11 people arrested led by the accused architect of an absentee ballot harvesting scheme, Bladenboro’s McCrae Dowless.

Harris was the Republican representative, McCready the Democrat. Harris, former pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charlotte, had won unofficially by 905 votes.

Bladen County was considered the hub of the transgressions. Voters have told media outlets from here to New York City they don’t trust the process, and haven’t for years.

This was not the first probe of Bladen County elections. The first conviction still hasn’t happened either. Since the hearing in February, a new state board has been seated along with a new staff director, and Bladen County has had five people approved for its election board that were not on the previous board.

Tuesday’s ballot includes McCready, Republican state Sen. Dan Bishop, Allen Smith of the Green Party and Jeff Scott of the Libertarian Party. All are from Charlotte. Harris cited health reasons for not running again.

District 9 stretches from the northern portion of Bladen County and southern portion of Cumberland County to the eastern side of Mecklenburg County, with all of Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland and Robeson counties included.

The seat was previously held by Robert Pittenger of Charlotte. It has been in the hands of Republicans since 1963.

Absentee-by-mail ballots are to be considered by the county board on Monday and Tuesday in 5 p.m. meetings.

Early voting stopped on Wednesday as Hurricane Dorian approached North Carolina. However, the storm’s minimal impact on Bladen County allowed it to resume on Friday and Saturday.

Through Friday, Bladen County unofficially had 1,816 ballots cast. The two sites had registered 1,799 — 1,418 through the Board of Elections office and 381 through the Tar Heel site. Seventeen ballots had come to the office by mail and been approved by the county board through Tuesday of last week.

Results from Saturday were not available.

The seat has been vacant since Congress convened in January.

Bishop and McCready have each campaigned in Bladen County.

In addition to Dowless, the others arrested include Lisa Britt, Ginger Eason, Woody Hester, James Singletary, Jessica Dowless, Kelly Hendrix, Caitlyn Croom, Tonia Marie Gordon, Matthew Monroe Mathis and Rebecca D. Thompson. All face charges related to illegal activities with an election.

McCrae Dowless, who over the years has worked for both Democrats and Republicans, was charged in the summer with two counts of felony obstruction of justice, perjury, solicitation to commit perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice and possession of absentee ballot. In February he was charged with three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballot.

Harris has testified he hired McCrae Dowless, a two-time convicted felon, before the 2018 election. Harris has not been charged and has said he didn’t know Dowless was doing anything illegal.

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Alan Wooten

Bladen Journal

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @alanwooten19.