Upcoming Tour Dates with Michael Graff and Nick Ochsner, Co-Authors of “The Vote Collectors”

“A fine-grained and vivid account of the 2018 North Carolina congressional race that was overturned because of electoral fraud…Throughout, the authors weave in intriguing bits of local color and draw trenchant connections to fraud claims in the 2020 presidential election. This doggedly reported chronicle sheds light on America’s political dysfunctions.”—Publishers Weekly

Charlotte journalists Michael Graff and Nick Ochsner will be touring to discuss their new book The Vote Collectors: The True Story of the Scamsters, Politicians, and Preachers behind the Nation’s Greatest Electoral Fraud, which tells the story of the political shenanigans in Bladen County, North Carolina in 2018, which made national headlines for months and exposed the vulnerability of local elections. Graff and Ochsner explain why our present systems are powerless to monitor and prevent fraud, and tell a fascinating tale of rural corruption and a larger story about the challenges to democracy in the South and the nation at large.

UPCOMING 2021 EVENTS

Malaprops/UNC Press Presents in Asheville, NC on November 10 at 6pm ET (in-person + virtual)  

Axios Charlotte Book Preview Event at Free Range Brewing in Charlotte, NC on November 11 at 6pm ET (in-person)

McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC on November 13 at 11am (in-person) 

John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, NC on November 15 at Noon ET (virtual)  

Politics & Prose on November 16 at 7pm ET (virtual)  

Park Road Books on November 17 at 7pm ET (virtual)  

Main Street Books on November 18 at 7pm ET (virtual)  

Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, NC on November 19 at 7pm ET (in-person)  

“Graff and Ochsner’s narrative moves like a novel, tying its story to the county’s past…thorough and compelling.”—Foreword Reviews

“In The Vote Collectors, that scandal—which made national headlines for months—is secondary to a more comprehensive examination of its historical, economic, and political antecedents in Bladen County and oft-forgotten eastern North Carolina…The authors unfurl the story in three parts: a deep probe into the history of post-Civil War eastern North Carolina sandwiched by more recent developments in Bladen County, leading up to and after the 2018 election.”—Charlotte Magazine

Michael Graff is a writer and editor in Charlotte, NC with work published in The Guardian, ESPN, Garden & Gun, The Oxford American, POLITICO, and more. He is the editor of Axios Charlotte.

Nick Ochsner is chief investigative reporter at WBTV in Charlotte, NC.