A shocking discovery has just been made in the ongoing governor challenge between Democrat Roy Cooper, and Republican Pat McCrory. It involves allegations that several dozen people were paid to submit hundreds of absentee ballots for Roy Cooper and the other Democratic candidates.
According to Bladen County Board of Elections officials, an “overwhelming number” of suspicious write-in votes cast for Democrat Franklin Graham in the race for Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor appear to have “overtly similar” handwriting patterns on the ballots and witness signatures. In many cases, dozens of ballots appear to be filled out and witnessed by the same person without indicating that any voter assistance was provided, a clear example of voter fraud in violation of North Carolina election law. The county and state Boards of Elections are investigating.
Yesterday, the Bladen County Board of Elections allowed the ballots in question to be reviewed by a forensic handwriting expert who corroborated the account that numerous ballots were filled out by the same people. In addition to the write-in votes for Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor, the fraudulent absentee ballots appear to have been mostly straight ticket votes for Democrats in all other offices, including gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper.
The N.C. Democratic Party, however, has said that the governor’s campaign was exaggerating the issue to harm Cooper.
“This is an isolated incident that the State Board of Elections is aware of and investigating,” Ford Porter, Cooper’s campaign spokesman, said in response.