File under ‘Voter Fraud Does Change the Outcome of Elections’:  North Carolina “State officials have ordered a new election for the Pembroke Town Council after hearing complaints of voter fraud… The irregularities occurred to such an extent that it tainted the results of elections, said Don Wright, the state board’s attorney.”  One council seat contest ended in a tie.

Criminal charges may also be forthcoming.  The Robeson County District Attorney is investigating the voter fraud allegations, which include ineligible out-of-state residents illegally registering and voting via same-day registration (eliminated by the state’s new Voter Information Verification Act):

“The board reviewed evidence that at least two candidates helped bring people to the town’s early voting location who were ineligible to vote. Some of those people, including several young men who came from out of state to attend a basketball program, managed to cast ballots because they were mistakenly registered during one-stop absentee voting.”

The eight ineligibles “mistakenly” registered and allowed to illegally vote “did not provide identification needed under state and federal law to establish they were residents of the town,” WRAL reports:

Steve Stone, chairman of the Robeson County Board of Elections, said one-stop voting was a major cause of problems during the 2013 election, as well as prior elections.  “There’s been a playbook that was written in 2005 (when one-stop voting first started), and every election since someone else seems to get a hold of it,” Stone said.  

“Because of the taint, the multiple allegations in this matter, unless this board orders a new election, the will of the people won’t be known,” said Joshua Malcolm, a state board member who lives in Pembroke.