Latest: NC Official Says US House Race Saw Ballot Scheme

The latest on an evidentiary hearing outlining a ballot fraud investigation in an undeclared North Carolina congressional race for which a winner hasn't been finalized

1 p.m. 

A North Carolina woman who last fall rounded up unsealed and incomplete ballots in the country's last unsettled congressional election says the organizer of the ballot-collection effort paid her about $125 for every 50 ballots she gathered.

Lisa Britt testified Monday at a state elections board hearing that she worked for her mother's ex-husband, political operative Leslie McCrae Dowless.

He's accused of using illegal methods to increase the number of mail-in ballots going to Republican Mark Harris, who holds a slim lead over Democrat Dan McCready in unofficial results in the 9th congressional district race.

The race wasn't certified, but the elections board is expected to either declare a winner or order a new election after the hearing.

Britt says she doesn't think Harris knew about Dowless' methods.

11 a.m.

North Carolina's elections director says investigators found a "coordinated, unlawful absentee ballot scheme" in two rural counties in the country's only unsettled congressional election.

Kim Strach described the investigation at the opening of a state elections board hearing Monday into ballot fraud in North Carolina's 9th congressional district. Republican Mark Harris holds a slim lead over Democrat Dan McCready in unofficial results, but the election wasn't certified. The board is expected to either certify a winner in the race or order a new election after the hearing.

Strach says a political operative working for Harris paid people $125 for every 50 mail-in ballots they collected from voters in Bladen and Robeson counties. Officials say the ballots were in unsealed envelopes, meaning they could have been altered before being counted.