Early voting dates and hours are set for Anson County in the upcoming May 14 election.

The site will be the Anson County Board of Elections Office, 402 Morven Road in Wadesboro.

The hours are April 24-26 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., April 29-May 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and May 6-10 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This means early voting is available in a window of 2½ weeks only on weekdays.

On Election Day, voting will be available from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

In the 9th District, there is the race for the U.S. House seat that has garnered national attention.

On May 14, the 9th District voting is a primary for 10 Republicans. The general election for the 9th District is Sept. 10, unless a second primary is needed. In that case, the general election shifts to Nov. 5.

The U.S. House seat was formerly held by Robert Pittenger and has been occupied by a Republican since 1963. The Rev. Mark Harris, a Republican, appeared to win that seat Nov. 6 by 905 votes in a race with Democrat Dan McCready but an investigation and four-day evidentiary hearing ended in February with the state board calling for a new election.

The results of the investigation were passed along to prosecutors, who have not said their probe is complete. The district attorney’s office in Wake County has spoken, but the FBI and the State Bureau of Investigation have also been linked to misdeeds involving absentee ballots in Bladen and Robeson counties.

McRae Dowless of Bladenboro has been accused as the architect of a ballot harvesting scheme. He’s been arrested and charged as have Bladen County’s Caitlyn Croom, Tonia Marie Gordon, Matthew Monroe Mathis and Rebecca D. Thompson. Dowless is charged with seven low-level felonies including ballot possession and obstruction of justice; the others face charges of conspiracy to commit felony obstruction of justice and possession of an absentee ballot. Mathis also faces a charge of falsely signing certification on an absentee ballot.

Prosecutors have not said if they will charge Harris, who has said he hired Dowless, or anyone else.

Harris, formerly pastor of a large Baptist church in Charlotte, cited health reasons in deciding not to run again. McCready, from Charlotte, is the lone Democrat running.

The Republican primary field includes Stevie Rivenbark Hull of Fayetteville, Matthew Ridenhour of Charlotte, Stony Rushing of Wingate, Fern Shubert of Marshville, Dr. Albert Lee Wiley of Atlantic Beach, Chris Anglin of Raleigh, state Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte, Leigh Thomas Brown of Harrisburg, Kathie C. Day of Cornelius and Gary Dunn of Matthews.

In the general election along with McCready are Allen Smith of Charlotte and the Green Party, and Jeff Scott of Charlotte and the Libertarian Party.

Candidates do not have to live in the district they represent. The 9th District stretches from an eastern portion of Mecklenburg County to a southern portion of Cumberland County and northern portion of Bladen County, with all of Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland and Robeson counties included.

https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_election.jpg

Alan Wooten

The Anson Record