The possibility of absentee ballot fraud in the November election has taken center stage as the state elections board prepares for an evidentiary hearing in which they may decree that a new election be held. A date for the hearing has not yet been set, but it will likely be in the coming days or weeks.

Investigators for the elections board are looking at whether a Bladen County voter-turnout operative who worked for the Harris campaign, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., or his employees manipulated, destroyed or illegally handled absentee ballots. Mr. Harris has denied wrongdoing, and a spokesman did not respond to a message on Tuesday.

But the possibility that data was leaked by county officials has also emerged as an issue.

In recent weeks, Democrats released an affidavit by Agnes Willis, an assistant who worked at the local elections board, who said that on Nov. 3, the last day of early voting, the tape showing election results “was run after the polls closed, and was viewed by officials” who were not election judges.

A lawyer for the Democrats later wrote to the state board, saying that Democrats had learned that Bladen County officials had illegally leaked absentee vote totals to Republicans, but withheld it from Democrats.

On Tuesday, Republicans said that if such a leak occurred it would violate their core principles.

“We are extremely concerned that early voting totals may have been leaked in Bladen County as reported by The Charlotte Observer,” Mr. Hayes said in his statement, referring to a story that appeared in that paper on Monday. “This action by election officials would be a fundamental violation of the sense of fair play, honesty, and integrity that the Republican Party stands for. We can never tolerate the state putting its thumb on the scale. The people involved in this must be held accountable and should it be true, this fact alone would likely require a new election.”