State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement members, from left, Andy Penry (chairman), Joshua Malcolm and Damon Circosta huddle with staff at the board's office in Raleigh during a Friday vote to hold a hearing on the 9th Congressional District race. (Kirk Ross/for The Washington Post) TAR HEEL, N.C. -The Democratic chairman of the state elections board in North Carolina resigned Saturday, saying he did not want his partisan views to undermine a widening investigation into alleged election fraud in the 9th Congressional District race. Andy Penry, chairman of the nine-member State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, said in a statement to the board obtained by The Washington Post that he was stepping away to allow the investigation to continue "free of attempts at distraction and obstruction so that the truth can be revealed." Penry has fielded criticism from North Carolina Republican officials, who have pointed to his Twitter posts - which include a number of tweets highly critical of President Trump - as evidence that the board's investigation is partisan and baseless. "The investigation of criminal conduct and absentee voting fraud in the 2018 Republican primary and 2018 general election in congressional District 9 is a matter of vital importance to our democracy," Penry wrote in the statement. "I will not allow myself to be used as an instrument of distraction in this investigation." Penry's decision came after the nine-member elections board - which includes four Democrats, four Republicans and one unaffiliated voter - agreed unanimously Tuesday to delay certification of the results in the 9th District election amid allegations of an effort to fill in or discard the absentee ballots of Democratic voters. Republican Mark Harris, who beat incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger in the primary, leads Democrat Dan McCready in the race by only 905 votes, according to unofficial returns.
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