The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus said Friday that news reports quoting him that the North Carolina legislature could award the state’s presidential election to Donald Trump before votes are counted were based on a conversation that was “out of context fetched”.
The comments from Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland were made at a Republican Party dinner in a conversation with a pro-Trump activist who had delivered the keynote address. The activist suggested that legislatures in several states, including North Carolina, could convene on Election Day and award their state’s electors to Trump. The comments from Thursday’s dinner in Maryland were first reported by Politico.
After the speech, Harris referred to counties in western North Carolina that suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Helene. In response to the activist’s proposal, he said, “For North Carolina, that makes a lot of sense,” according to a video.
“I mean, statistically you can say, ‘Hey, look, you’ve become disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been, which, if I was in the Legislature, would be enough to say, yes, we have to convene the Legislature, and we can’t disenfranchise the voters. But how do you make the argument in other states? I mean, otherwise it looks like it’s just a power play,” Harris said.
“By North Carolina I mean it’s legit. I mean, there are a lot of people who don’t vote, and it could make a difference in that state,” he said.
Such a maneuver does not appear to be possible under current North Carolina law.
State law on allocating presidential electors limits the General Assembly’s role to extenuating circumstances after an election if other steps in the process are not met. Any attempt by a legislature to subvert the will of the voters and promote an alternative slate of electors also appears to violate the Electoral Count Act, which was passed by Congress after Trump attempted to block the certification of the presidential election to be discontinued in 2020.
The offices of North Carolina Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Harris issued a statement Friday after his comments at the dinner attracted widespread attention.
“Yesterday’s theoretical conversation has been taken out of context,” he said in a statement. “As I have said repeatedly, every legal vote must be counted.”
He also said that “voting is going well in western North Carolina.”
There is bipartisan agreement on the steps needed to improve access to voting rights in Helene-affected counties. The North Carolina State Board of Elections — made up of both Democratic and Republican members — unanimously approved a resolution earlier this month that expands absentee ballot collection options and gives local governments more flexibility.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed legislation to extend these changes to the 25 affected counties. State lawmakers also passed a bill Thursday that would require 13 Mountain counties to have at least one in-person voting site for every 30,000 registered voters as soon as possible.
Early voting across the state, including in areas hit hard by the hurricane, has been robust. The state elections board has repeatedly praised the efforts of local election workers to ensure all voters can cast their ballots.
Asked for her response to Harris’ comments, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said: “America deserves to have leaders who respect the importance of one of the pillars and foundations of our democracy, free and fair elections, and that they are not being manipulated by elected leaders for the sake of their own political future or their own political strategy for how they themselves want to succeed.
“This has to be about what is in the best interest of the American people.”
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Associated Press writers Gary Robertson and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
