A new podcast from the makers of "Serial" and The New York Times. For at least a decade, allegations of cheating have swirled around elections in rural Bladen County, N.C. Some people in town point fingers at a Black advocacy group, the Bladen County Improvement Association, accusing it of bullying voters, tampering with ballots and stealing votes outright. These accusations have never been substantiated, but they persist. In this five-part series, reporter Zoe Chace travels to Bladen County, N.C., to investigate the power of election fraud allegations.
Coming in the Improvement Association, a new show from Serial Productions and the New York Times.
If you know Bladen County, North Carolina, it's probably for its high profile election related corruption.
So you were filling in the ovals and voting for other people, right?
Yes, sir.
You were voting other people's ballots?
Yes, sir.
I assume you knew that it was not legal to vote other people's ballots, right?
We were doing what we were paid to do.
I understand you, but you were paid to do something that you knew was wrong.
Yes, sir.
In 2018, Republican Mark Harris beat out his Democratic opponent for a congressional seat, only to have the victory reversed after his campaign was investigated for absentee ballot fraud.
Democrats like to talk about this scandal because it's Republicans who did it.
Republicans like to talk about this scandal without talking about who did it because it proves election fraud is real.
It can happen.
I like talking about this scandal because there's a story behind it that most people don't know.
And it helps explain how we got here.
Here being how we, the United States, have become nearly undone by endless accusations of fraud and stolen elections.
Down in Bladen county, where the congressional scandal took place, there are many people who believe the journalists, the authorities, all of us, we got this whole story wrong.
They say the real election cheaters are still at work in the county.
Bullying, tampering, stealing votes.