GOP official tied to voting scandal now overseeing 'election integrity' in key swing state

Republicans in one pivotal swing state have now put a man in charge of overseeing "election integrity" efforts, despite his connection to two separate scandals involving public corruption and election fraud.

Politico reported Friday that former North Carolina Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse has been named the state's new "election liaison," allowing him to have authority over local and state election officials. Woodhouse's new role was made possible thanks to a law the Tar Heel State's Republican-dominated legislature passed that transferred authority over elections from Gov. Josh Stein, who is a Democrat, to state auditor Dave Boliek, who is a Republican.

Stein has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of that law. However, the state's supreme court has ruled that Boliek's appointments of election officials are allowed to stand while the governor's lawsuit plays out.

A spokesperson for Boliek's office said Woodhouse would be working "to ensure election integrity while encouraging maximum participation in elections." Boliek said in a letter to local election officials that Woodhouse would be "my eyes and ears in the ground" in upcoming elections.

Woodhouse is considered a somewhat controversial figure in North Carolina politics, as he was the head of the state's Republican Party at the time of an election fraud scandal in 2018. That year, Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.) won a razor-thin victory of just over 900 votes in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. It was later revealed that contractor Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. visited the homes of multiple elderly voters to collect their absentee ballots, only to later destroy them. Dowless destroyed more than 1,000 ballots, throwing the election into chaos and prompting Harris to call for a new election, though he did not run. Harris would later win an election for North Carolina's 8th Congressional District. Woodhouse left his position atop the North Carolina GOP in 2019.

The appointment could prove significant in next year's midterm election, where retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) will not be running for a third term. And as a state that voted for a Republican president and a Democratic governor in two consecutive quadrennial elections, the election to fill Sen. Tillis' seat could come down to vote counts in a handful of precincts spread across a small number of counties.

North Carolina is no stranger to nail-biter elections. Last year, Democratic supreme court justice Allison Riggs narrowly won reelection by less than 800 votes statewide, which was confirmed in two recounts. Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin litigated the result for months, and unsuccessfully fought to throw out ballots cast by military members and North Carolinians living overseas, which would have tilted the election in his favor.

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