N.C. Gov. McCrory cries voter fraud amid calls to concede

Two weeks after Democrat Roy Cooper claimed a narrow victory in North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, Republican incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory continues to claim the election was rigged amid calls for him to concede.

“I understand it’s hard to lose,” said state Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County on Monday. “McCrory needs to be a statesman and do what the voters wanted and concede this race.”

According to the Charlotte Observer, Cotham was among several Democratic lawmakers in the state who have joined together in urging McCrory to accept defeat. As of Monday, McCrory trailed his Democratic opponent by more than 6,800 votes.

Since Nov. 9, McCrory’s reelection campaign has filed 52 complaints alleging voter fraud in more than half of North Carolina’s 100 counties. After several county election boards dismissed his demands for a hand recount of the votes last week, McCrory turned to the GOP-led state Board of Elections, which agreed to take over the review of his complaint in just one county. The remainder, the board decided during an emergency meeting Sunday, must first be reviewed by the county election boards (also Republican-run) before they can be appealed at the state level.

McCrory became the subject of both state and nationwide scrutiny for his support of a controversial piece of legislation that required transgender people to use the restrooms that correspond with their biological sex rather than their gender identity. The measure, often referred to as the “bathroom bill,” also limited protections for LGBT people under state antidiscrimination law and forbade the passage of local measures that seek to offer additional protection.

A number of major businesses, entertainers and athletic organizations, such as the NBA and NCAA, boycotted North Carolina after McCrory signed the bill, which U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch ultimately deemed in violation federal civil rights legislation.

“It’s clear that voters wanted to put an end to Gov. McCrory’s destructive and discriminatory policies that continually damaged this great state’s reputation,” Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said in a joint statement issued by the NCAE and the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC) Monday. “He should respect the democratic process and concede immediately. Our state deserves better than this.”

SEANC President Stanley Drewery agreed, stating, “It is irresponsible for McCrory to allow his ego to obstruct the transition towards North Carolina’s future with Roy Cooper as governor.”

Meanwhile, despite the delayed declaration of an official vote tally, Cooper has continued to move forward with his plans to take over the governor’s office in January. On Monday, he announced the selection of several transition team leaders.

“It’s 40 days until I take the oath of office,” Cooper said in a press release. “It would be irresponsible to wait any longer to tackle the issues we campaigned on across the state.”

When contacted for comment on Cooper’s transition team as well as the calls for McCrory to concede, McCrory campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz referred Yahoo News to a statement issued earlier Monday in which he called Cooper “desperate” and doubled down on vote-fraud claims.

“Why is Roy Cooper so insistent on circumventing the electoral process and counting the votes of dead people and felons?” read the statement by Diaz. “It may be because he needs those fraudulent votes to count in order to win. Instead of insulting North Carolina voters, we intend to let the process work as it should to ensure that every legal vote is counted properly.”