(CNN) A North Carolina woman testified Monday that she illegally picked up and falsified absentee ballots in a 2018 congressional election under the direction of a political operative who was working on behalf of the race's Republican candidate.

In the first day of the North Carolina State Board of Elections hearing into election irregularities in the 9th District race , Lisa Britt detailed how the operation worked. The race is the last undecided contest from the 2018 midterm election and the North Carolina seat remains open amid allegations of fraud.

The state board of elections voted not to certify the results in which Republican Mark Harris, a Baptist minister, led Democrat Dan McCready, a businessman and retired Marine, by 905 votes. The decision to not certify stemmed from the board's investigation into bizarre results involving absentee ballots.

North Carolina elections officials, as well as local and state prosecutors, are investigating allegations of fraud that could involve suppressing or tampering with absentee ballots.

North Carolina requires a witness to sign an absentee ballot, and usually they are family members or friends. But a CNN review in the 9th District race found three witnesses signed more than 40 ballots each, another signed 30 and three other people signed more than 10 apiece.

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