The Philip DeFranco Show - MS 2.26 The Insane Election Fraud Exposed in North Carolina Is One Roller Coaster Of A Wake-Up Call

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

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Hello, hello, welcome to your Extra Morning Show. My name is Philip DeFranco, and I hope you're ready for a ride. This is a story that I've wanted to cover for a while. It's been happening for four months. There have been so many damn updates. And it has now finally reached a spot that I feel like we can tell this tale,

which still technically isn't over, but we are now turning a page. So, all of that said, what we're talking about today is a midterm race for Congress that after four months is still not over. 2018 midterms, remember that? There is still one House race that hasn't been called. And in fact, this election has become so controversial that some people have called it potentially the most serious federal election tampering case in years. But this isn't a race that involves just possible dirty politics.

This race is also about money, drugs, and a local political operative embroiled in controversy. It is unbelievably messy, so I hope you don't have your nice clothes on yet, because we're gonna jump into it. That was so stupid and cheesy. Here we go! So, if all of the hints in this lead-up didn't tip you off, we're gonna be talking about North Carolina's 9th District. And really, unless you live in North Carolina, you're probably unfamiliar with this race, or at least all of the details of it. But, it is where Democrat Dan McCready, a former Marine Corps captain and Harvard grad, ran against Republican Mark Harris, a former pastor with a PhD in Christian leadership from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Even before election night a few months ago,

the race between Harris and McCready was always expected to be tight. Both candidates positioned themselves as outsiders. You had Harris campaigning that a vote for him meant a vote to help drain the swamp, and you had McCready even promising that he wouldn't be voting for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. And those messages really seemed to resonate with the voters there, and you had McCready even promising that he wouldn't be voting for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

And those messages really seemed to resonate with the voters there, and polls in the weeks and months leading up to the election had Harris and McCready neck and neck. So, what happened on election night? Well, early in the night, the candidates were deadlocked. But, as Tuesday night then turned into Wednesday morning, Harris started to pull away.

And with all of the precincts reporting, unofficial tally showed Harris was ahead of McCready by 905 votes. And that is a ridiculously slim margin, considering there were 280,000 ballots cast in the district. I mean, we're talking about.3%, but still the day after the election, McCready called Harris to congratulate him on his victory and concede the race. But obviously, because you can see the length of this video down below, that is not where this story ends. So let's break down what happened since election night. Following decision 2018, the North Carolina State Board did not certify the results of the ninth congressional

district race between Mark Harris and Dan McCready. On November 27, three weeks after election night, North Carolina's ninth district still wasn't officially called even though Harris looked like he had enough votes to take it home. And on that day, the North Carolina State Board of Elections made up of four Democrats, four Republicans, and one Independent met behind closed doors

to talk about the race. And that is when they voted unanimously not to certify Harris as the winner of the race. Now, you are probably wondering how the board had the power to just say, yeah, we don't believe these results. Well, the board cited a specific North Carolina statute that allows for them to take any action to ensure that an election is quote, without taint or fraud or corruption and without irregularities that may have changed the results of an election. And when the board decided not to certify Harris as the winner, they also launched an investigation into the election, which shocked tons of people living in the district because the board

didn't really tell people why. The only real information that people had was that vice chair of the election board and Democrat Joshua Malcolm was the board member who first raised an issue with the results. And you had a North Carolina newspaper by the name of the state quoting Malcolm, giving this kind of cryptic reason to the board on why it should vote with the results. You had a North Carolina newspaper by the name of the state quoting Malcolm giving this kind of cryptic reason

To the board on why it should vote against the result saying I'm very familiar with Unfortunate activities that have been happening down in my part of the state and I am not going to turn a blind eye to what took Place to the best of my understanding which has been ongoing for a number of years that has repeatedly been referred to the United States Attorney and the district attorneys for them to take action and clean it up. And in my opinion, those things have not taken place. And that is the political legal version of a subtweet if I've ever seen one. Now Malcolm didn't elaborate on that statement to any other news outlet at that time, but just one day later more details came to light. Today the chairman of the Bladen County Board of Elections told WFAE that the chief investigator

for the state board had seized absentee by-mail ballot request forms and their return envelopes days after the November 6th election. Now, in order to understand the allegations surrounding this election, you have to be familiar with Bladen County. Bladen County is a rural county in the southern part of North Carolina. It is about three hours east of Charlotte, and parts of the county make up the 9th congressional district. But, the county has a history of controversial elections. In 2016, a Bladen County resident by the name of McCray Dallas alleged that there was, quote, "'a massive scheme to run an absentee ballot mill involving hundreds of ballots in the county.'"

Just a quick note here for those who maybe are unfamiliar with how an absentee by mail ballot works in North Carolina. A voter fills out a request for an absentee ballot, then mails it to their county board of elections. That board then processes the request. They then mail the voter a ballot. The voter then completes the ballot and has to have two witnesses sign the ballot.

Or technically one witness can sign if the person is a notary, but main point, after the ballot is completed and signed, the voter can then return it by mail. And in North Carolina, anyone can request a vote by absentee. You don't have to have any specific excuse for wanting to do so like in some other states. So back to 2016.

McCrae Dallas claims something fraudulent happened with absentee ballots in Bladen County Dallas had run and won re-election to the Bladen County soil and water conservation board that year But despite winning he filed these election protest documents alleging absentee ballot fraud by his opponents And here's what Dallas said in those documents That's alarming one very active absentee ballot quote witness Deborah Deborah Monroe, who was apparently personally validating, validated at least 67 mail-in absentee ballots. And so basically what Dallas was saying there is that it was very sketchy that the same person

witnessed so many ballots. And Dallas also alleged that the handwriting on multiple write-in ballots for his opponent were similar, and he said that it was possible that one person voted multiple times. But Dallas's allegations were later dismissed by the state, although here's where things get interesting. The latest 2018 House race for District 9

also had strange absentee ballots in Bladen County. In 2018, 684 people voted by absentee mail-in ballots in Bladen. That was 7.5% of all the ballots cast in Bladen, which is a very high number. Reportedly, the average for all other counties in the district was just 2.7%. It was also, notably, the only county

where absentee voters voted for Harris. Here's a graph where you notably, the only county where absentee voters voted for Harris. Here's a graph where you can see the percentages of accepted absentee ballots broken down by votes for Harris and McCready. You can see that in every other county, mail-in absentee ballots were overwhelmingly for McCready. So, on November 28th, the day after the board refused to certify the results,

unsurprisingly, news broke that the board was investigating the high number of absentee ballots. And the next day, a local North Carolina news channel reported they found the reason why there were number of absentee ballots. And the next day, a local North Carolina news channel reported they found the reason why there were so many absentee ballots. Only Channel 9 obtained these signed affidavits painting a concerning picture, scathing allegations of mishandling elections in Bladen County.

On November 29th, WSOC-TV Channel 9 reported they had sworn affidavits signed by absentee voters saying that a man named McCray Dallas hired workers to collect absentee ballots. Yup, this is the same Dallas who two years prior reported what he thought was voter fraud to the state of North Carolina. And this was huge news for two major reasons.

One, Dallas was hired by Mark Harris during his congressional campaign. And two, North Carolina law forbids third parties from handling absentee ballots unless a voter is disabled or close family. These affidavits also alleged some other shocking stuff. One person who signed one said that her ballot was collected before she even signed or close family. These affidavits also alleged some other shocking stuff. One person who signed one said that her ballot was collected before she even signed or sealed it.

Another individual said a woman came to collect her ballot before they had finished it, and the woman who came to collect the ballot allegedly told that voter the ballot would be finished later by someone else. In case you're unable to read my face right now, just so we are clear, if that is true, that is very illegal. No one should ever collect and take your ballot from you

and fill it out without you present. That is voter fraud and that is true, that is very illegal. No one should ever collect and take your ballot from you and fill it out without you present. That is voter fraud and that is a felony. This appears to be a coordinated effort to illegally pick up ballots. And one of the people who was tasked with doing this admits she's not even sure if these ballots made it to the elections board. And then in the first few days of December,

Channel 9 also reported they had more breaking news about this race. The channel reported that they were provided photocopies of 159 submitted and accepted absentee by mail envelopes. And they found that the same eight names appeared as witnesses on those 159 ballots over and over and over again. And reportedly these eight people signed as witnesses a combined 205 times. Channel 9 reporter Joe Bruno was actually able to track down and speak to Ginger Eason, who signed 18 ballots as a witness. And here she is talking with Bruno. Then I paid a visit to Ginger Eason.

Hi, I'm Joe. After introducing myself as a reporter, she told me why her name appeared so many times as a witness. So what were you doing for these? I was helping McCrae pick up ballots. So if Eason is not lying there, she just admitted on camera to breaking the law. Although she did later tell that reporter she had no idea what she was doing was illegal. But also get this, Eason also told the reporter that when she picked up those ballots, she never brought them to the election board or mailed them.

Instead, she brought them to McCrae's house, which once again, if that is true, that is very illegal. Two women intimately involved with McCrae Dallas's absentee ballot machine have revealed to BuzzFeed News its grim and chaotic workings in which Dallas tracked votes on yellow paper and paid his workers, including family members, from stacks of cash and that some were on opioids while they worked. Then, the day after Channel 9

talked with Ginger Eason about her involvement with McCrae Dallas and his ballot collection organization, BuzzFeed News published this article titled Inside the North Carolina Republican Vote Machine, Cash, Pills, and Ballots. The article is centered around two interviews with women related to McCrae Dallas, Jessica Dallas and Lisa Britt.

Both of those women were listed as having signed multiple ballots by Channel 9, with Jessica signing 15 and Lisa signing a whopping 42. Both women told Buzzfeed they also worked for McCrae to collect ballots. And these women provided some really crazy details about McCrae's organization that were previously unreported. Jessica said multiple people hired by McCrae were high on opioids while working to collect ballots.

Jessica telling BuzzFeed one worker, quote, was so fucking high the other day she passed out at the fucking computer. Jessica also told the outlet McCrae had stacks of cash she would use to pay workers. Also in the weeks prior to BuzzFeed's report, there had been news that McCrae's operation tried to target and limit black Democratic votes, but Lisa Britt denied this, saying, quote, It's not really that anyone was targeted. It's that we were giving everybody the opportunity to vote. You've got more people in low-income areas that don't have a vehicle to go vote. An exclusive interview with congressional candidate Mark Harris,

as members of his own party asked for answers from his campaign. Then, later in December, Mark Harris sat down with local news channel WBTV, where for the first time he publicly confirmed he personally hired McCrae Dallas after several local political leaders recommended him. Harris also told WBTV Dallas walked him through what he would do for the campaign. According to Harris, Dallas said he would implement this two-step plan. Step one, Dallas would help voters request absentee ballots, and that's perfectly legal. In fact, it's something Get Out the Vote campaigns do all the time. And then step two, Dallas would knock on doors with his team and ask voters if they had turned in their ballots. Also legal once again. And Harris told WBTV that at no point did he ever think Dallas might be doing something illegal. Friday, Harris expressed frustration at the lack of support from his party. And today, the party called on Harris to be immediately certified. So you've probably noticed

by now that as we've moved through this story, that a lot of this information has been coming from local news reports and that's actually because the North Carolina State Board of Elections had barely released any information about their investigation to the public at this point. The board had previously stated that it would hold a public hearing to detail evidence on December 21st But as that day came closer and closer the board announced that wasn't going to happen In fact the board had pushed the evidentiary hearing to January 11th But the lack of public evidence was frustrating GOP leaders. So on December 17th, North Carolina GOP leaders released a resolution

for the election board to either certify the results or come forward with detailed evidence of election fraud. And the board ultimately ignored those demands and they just kept the scheduled date of January 11th. Three judge panel ruled the state board of elections must disband Friday at noon. It was very much a surprise, but in line with the chaos that I think we've been seeing over the past several weeks. So here's where the story gets even more complicated and things are about to become totally chaotic. On Thursday, December 27th, the North Carolina Superior Court ruled that the North Carolina State Board of Elections would have to disband the very next day, Friday the 28th. But this ruling actually didn't have much to do with

the election fraud investigation in District 9. Back in October, before votes were even counted, judges in North Carolina ruled that the election board was unconstitutional because it took power away from the state's governor. The court also decided in October that the election board could still oversee the results of the 2018 midterm election,

but it would have to disband right after. But things obviously got messy when the board didn't certify District 9, and in fact, the board had to petition the court for multiple stays so they could keep investigating. And in fact, both Harris and McCready even requested to the court that the board stay intact to finish the investigation.

But on December 27th, the judges refused. The judges basically said enough is enough after the evidentiary hearing was pushed back from December to January with no real reason given. So they ordered that the board disband the next day. State Board of Elections was disbanded at noon today under orders from a state court that found its makeup unconstitutional.

Before noon on Friday, December 28th, Republicans asked for a last minute request to certify the election. But the board's chairman, Joshua Malcolm, told Republicans the board wouldn't be able to convene that type of meeting required under state law to certify the election with just hours left. So at noon, the board was disbanded and basically this entire election was just stuck in limbo

and no one was really sure what would happen from there. Well, as the new Congress was sworn in today, one North Carolina seat was left empty. The battle over District 9 rages on and as people living in that area are now without representation. The court orders the petition for mandamus of the petitioner be denied. And with that ruling, Mark Harris' lawyers leave court denied It was our only hope. and disappointed.

We're disappointed for Dr. Harris and we're disappointed for the voters of the 9th congressional district. Then on January 2nd, with no politically appointed election board in place, Mark Harris and his team asked a Superior Court judge again to certify the election result. But there was at least some movement forward that day. Even though the state's election board was dissolved at the end of December, investigators and staff of the board announced that they had actually continued to investigate the potential voter fraud. But keep in mind, even though these people were still investigating,

they had no authority to declare Harris a winner or call for a new election. And we saw them put out a statement saying, State board investigators continue to thoroughly investigate irregularities, including absentee by mail voting irregularities, "'including absentee-by-mail voting irregularities "'in the 2018 general election. "'Election staff are preparing "'for a public evidentiary hearing "'to give North Carolina voters a full picture

"'of the issues that affected that contest.'" It was also announced that both Democrats and Republicans would send names of nominees for a new board to Governor Roy Cooper by the end of the week. And under the governor's order, this new board would have the power to certify Harris or call for a new election. The last 25 minutes, Governor Cooper announced

the members of the new state board of elections. And there are three people from our area. The board will decide whether to certify Republican Mark Harris as the winner of the ninth district over Dan McCready or call for a new election. January 31st, Governor Cooper announced the five new members of the election board. You had three Democrats and two Republicans.

The breaking news on the NC9 election fraud allegations. We've learned the newly appointed state elections board will meet in two weeks to review evidence. Then on February 4th, after long last, we finally got some news that this investigation might be coming to an end. The new board announced that starting on February 18th, they would hold an evidentiary hearing.

And after that hearing, the board said they would vote on whether to certify the election or call for a new one. And that's a live picture happening right now at noon, the North Carolina Board of Elections hearing testimony about the state's ninth district. So on February 18th, four months after election day, the state board finally started holding a public hearing about the evidence they had collected. The evidence that we will provide today will show that a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election in Bladen and Robinson counties.

That was the state board's executive director, Kim Strong. And she laid out the details of the evidence the board found to open the meeting. And just as a heads up, there is just no way that we can cover everything that happened in the hearing because this hearing lasted for more than eight hours. But with that said, here are some of the things that she detailed.

Political firm by the name of Red Dome Group was hired by the Mark Harris campaign. Red Dome then paid McCrae Dallas more than $130,000 between July and November of 2018. And during that time, Dallas paid workers he hired to collect absentee ballot requests, falsify absentee ballot witness certifications, and to illegally collect ballots.

Strack also saying that Dallas's efforts were not just limited to Bladen County. She said investigators found that the alleged scheme also played out in nearby Robeson County. And during this hearing, Lisa Britt also testified for over two hours. That's the same woman who spoke to Buzzfeed in December about her involvement in Dallas's organization.

And here, Britt detailed how she mailed in absentee ballots without quote, raising red flags. She told the board they mailed no more than nine or 10 ballots at a time, and all the ballots were mailed from the post offices nearest to the voters' homes, even though many of the ballots were signed and witnessed at Dallas's office or home.

Britt also told the board that if she and others collected a ballot that was unsealed and unfinished, they would finish out the ballot by selecting the remaining Republican candidates. Then, in one of the craziest moments of the hearing, McCrae Dallas' attorney told the board that McCrae would only testify if he was given immunity from prosecution.

The board refused to do that, McCrae Dallas did not testify, and that was the insane end of day one. We are hearing more from the people involved in last November's election, as state investigators bring more evidence of the fraud they claim happened. So, then we have day two of the hearing, which was another long one,

and most of the day surrounded the testimony of Andy Yates. Yates is the head of Red Dome, and up until this point, Yates had basically been silent about the investigation and his company's involvement. But on the 18th, he told the board that Harris had hired Dallas for a get out the vote effort before hiring Red Dome and also saying that Red Dome was unaware that Dallas was doing anything illegal. Republican Mark Harris is expected to testify today in the hearing over North Carolina's District 9. Harris has not been certified as the winner

of the November election because of the investigation into ballot mishandling. We'll be in court today up in Raleigh. We'll let you know what exactly happens. As the hearing rolled into day three, Andy Yates was still testifying, and it came to light that his company Reddome never actually had any written contract with McCray Dallas

despite paying him more than $130,000. And after Yates left the stand, it was expected that Mark Harris would be next to speak, but that didn't happen. Instead, in a surprise move, lawyers for Harris' campaign turned over emails between Mark Harris and his son, John Harris. And just like that, 15 minutes later,

John Harris began testifying about those emails. And those emails showed that John had warned his father against hiring Dallas after John looked into Dallas's involvement with a 2016 congressional campaign in 2016 Mark Harris ran for Congress against eventual winner Robert Pittenger and third place finisher Todd Johnson on election night John emailed his father to tell him there might be counting errors in Bladen County because the third place finisher Johnson out of 218 mail-in votes he received 214 of them later in April of 2017 John says that his father talked with McCrae Dallas about his system

of turning out absentee votes in Bladen County. John said that's when he realized Dallas had worked for Todd Johnson's campaign and led the absentee ballot effort. John then emailed his father a section of state law about how collecting an absentee ballot is a felony offense. And John testified that he sent this email because he believed that Dallas had illegally harvested

absentee ballots in 2016 for Johnson. And so at this point, some local news outlets pointed out John's testimony contradicting Mark Harris's interview in mid-December with WBTV. Remember when Mark said that at no point did he have any idea Dallas might potentially do something illegal? And at the end of this bombshell testimony, John said that he loved his parents, he had no vendetta against them, and believed they made a genuine mistake. Mark Harris was in the audience, and reportedly he started to cry. Breaking right now, Mark Harris took the stand today to defend himself and his campaign from allegations of involvement in absentee ballot fraud.

On day four of the hearing, Mark Harris finally took the stand. And state board lawyers asked Harris if he had any conversations in recent weeks about his email exchange with John being released in the hearing. Harris told the board three separate times he did not have any conversations about the emails being part of the evidence. The hearing then broke for lunch. And then after returning from the lunch, Harris said this. Mr. Chairman, I have a statement that I wish to make.

It's been brought to my attention that I talked to my son, my younger son, Matthew, that I referenced earlier two nights ago about the fact that I did not think John's emails would be part of this hearing. Obviously, I was incorrect in my recollection, and I wholeheartedly apologize to this board. On January 18th, I went to the hospital. After battling what we thought was bronchitis, I developed a severe infection that actually caused me to become septic. In the process of that illness, I experienced two strokes from which I'm

still recovering. Though I thought I was ready to undergo the rigors of this hearing and I'm getting stronger, I clearly am not and I struggled this morning with both recall and confusion. Neither I nor any of the leadership of my campaign were aware of or condoned the improper activities that have been testified to in this hearing. Through the testimony I've listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called. It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted. So basically what Harris just said there was that because he was going through all these serious health problems, he forgot he had a conversation

with his younger son Matthew about John's emails being used as evidence earlier in the week. And then Harris asked the board for a new election. And so that was basically the nail in the coffin. Right at that point, it would make sense for the board to certify Harris as the winner. So the board then voted pretty quickly to hold a new election for Congress.

But also, we should mention this. Before the board got to that vote, they talked about whether or not other races in District 9 should have new elections for Congress. But also, we should mention this. Before the board got to that vote, they talked about whether or not other races in District 9 should have new elections as well. After all, we had witnesses testifying that they filled in ballots for Republican candidates in smaller races. And of course, this discussion led to more confusion

and more chaos, and board members were even unsure if they had the power to call for those other new elections. And regarding those, the board eventually decided that discussions on the other races will be deferred for the time being meaning that in the near Future we might get even more election redos in district 9 along with this the board also announced that they will be releasing the rest Of their evidence tomorrow because they didn't get through everything in the hearing also regarding when these new elections will be held Of course that's still up in the air

But it's very likely that we won't have the outcome of a new election for several more months So that means that the people of North Carolina's ninth district will continue to live without representation in Congress for even longer. Also, we should definitely expect to see a criminal case start soon regarding all of this election fraud. Especially since the board didn't give McCray Dallas the immunity that he wanted, so stay tuned for that craziness.

But for now, that is ultimately where this tale ends. Of course, like with everything we talk about with these videos, I'd love to know your thoughts on any and all aspects of this story. Also, while you're doing that, or maybe you're not, if you like this video, be sure to let us know. Hit that like button, support the show that way. Also, if you're new to these videos, or you just haven't hit the damn button for some reason, be sure to hit that subscribe button, maybe ring that bell to turn on notifications.

Also, when you hit that bell, make sure it's for all notifications and not some, which is an option for some reason. But, with that said, of course, as always, I love your face. I hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you later today, right here back on this channel with a brand new Philip DeFranco show.