A group targeting voter fraud in North Carolina has called on the Trump administration to withdraw its nomination of Andrew Murray to be the next U.S. Attorney for what they say is his refusal to prosecute two cases of illegal voting. Murray, the Mecklenburg district attorney, says the allegations are unfounded and that the Voter Integrity Project of Raleigh has mischaracterized his actions as well as the cases they cite. “This office prosecutes crimes of every level every day,” Murray’s office said in a statement Monday. “But prosecuting people when sufficient evidence does not exist simply for the sake of media attention to the Voter Integrity Project’s cause … is simply wrong and unjust. This office does not – and will not – operate that way.”
In some ways, the back-and-forth reflects the polarizing national debate over the veracity of the ballot, with various sides arguing whether a problem actually exists. President Donald Trump has claimed that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, but he has not offered proof. Critics say the primary goal of the president and his commission is to make it harder for Democrat-leaning groups to vote.
Murray, a Republican, has been nominated by Trump to become U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, which stretches from Charlotte to Asheville.
Officials with the Voter Integrity Project say they first met with Murray two years ago to ask him to prosecute two possible cases of residents voting in North Carolina and another state. Murray refused – saying he was “too busy to bother with such low-level crimes,” the group says.
Full Article: District attorney, nonprofit spar over handling of alleged voter-fraud cases | Charlotte Observer.