Prior to this week’s controversy, Republican Mark Harris appeared to have won two very close elections this year that are now both under scrutiny. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images Elections North Carolina House race too close to call amid fraud inquiry The Associated Press has uncalled the race, as state authorities examine allegations against Republican Mark Harris' campaign.

The Associated Press on Friday announced it was revoking its projection of a Republican victory in a battleground North Carolina congressional race, after the state elections board there refused to certify the results amid allegations of wrongdoing.

Results show Republican Mark Harris received 905 more votes than Democrat Dan McCready in the state’s 9th Congressional District — one of the most closely watched battleground districts in the country in November's midterm elections. But in two separate meetings this week, the state elections board voted not to certify the results, after receiving notarized affidavits from voters who claimed that a woman was going door to door offering help filling out and returning absentee ballots in Bladen County, in the eastern part of the district, which stretches west to parts of Charlotte.


A subcontractor for Harris' campaign is suspected, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Earlier Friday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 7-2 to hold a hearing to weigh claims of "fraudulent activities" in the district, tentatively scheduling an "evidentiary hearing on or before December 21 ... to assure the election is determined without taint of fraud or corruption," board member Joshua Malcolm said in a motion.

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Prior to this week’s controversy, Harris appeared to have won two very close elections this year that are now both under scrutiny — the first coming in a primary in May, when he unseated GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger by an 828-vote margin. In the primary, Harris won 96 percent of all absentee ballots in Bladen County, according to the Washington Post, far greater than the 69 percent he won in the county as a whole.

The North Carolina contest marks the second time this week the AP has rescinded one of its election-night race calls. On Monday night, the wire service — which supplies election results and projections to news organizations all over the country — said it no longer considered Republican Rep. David Valadao the winner of a congressional race in California’s Central Valley, after his Democratic opponent, TJ Cox, inched ahead of Valadao in the state’s protracted vote count.

As of early Friday, Cox’s lead in the California race stood at 591 votes, with the counties planning to certify their results next week.

Scott Bland contributed to this report.