A new report from the left-leaning group Democracy North Carolina alleges that former governor Pat McCrory's campaign and the state Republican Party generated "false charges" of voter fraud in last November's election. In the report released Tuesday, the group says Republicans engaged in a "coordinated legal and publicity crusade to disrupt and potentially corrupt" the election process.
Democracy NC says its research found that a majority of the election protests were prepared by a Virginia-based law firm hired by the McCrory re-election campaign, then emailed to county boards of election around the state. "It looked like a lot of them were prepared fairly hastily, or copies..from one to the other, and they were using some very faulty data bases to match voters from one state to another," said Democracy NC executive director Bob Hall. "But they were mismatching people by the hundreds," he added.
Democracy NC also claims that accusations of voter fraud harmed and "harassed" innocent voters, damaging their reputations and maligning their character. The group is calling for state and federal investigations to see whether the actions of those promoting the protests may have violated election laws.
The North Carolina Republican Party responded with a statement from its chairman, Robin Hayes. He calls the Democracy NC report a "shameful and outrageous" attack, and an attempt to "bully" citizens out of their "right to provide a check" on the electoral system.
