Look, it usually doesn’t help to be harsh, but sometimes you have to be. So, harsh it is.  If you are one of those conservatives saying that we should only vote on election day and not use mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, early voting, or any of the tactics, techniques, or procedures that Democrats have used to win elections, then you’re an idiot.

Democrats in Sacramento have been rewriting election laws to help their party “ballot harvest.” But now Republicans have figured out how to play the same game, and Democratic state leaders are threatening legal action.

In 2016 California Democrats passed a law allowing anybody, including paid campaign operatives and political parties, to collect and return mail-in ballots. Two years later Democrats prohibited “disqualifying a ballot solely because the person returning it did not provide on the identification envelope his or her name, relationship to the voter, or signature.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called on Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) to issue a "public apology" to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for promoting a video alleging ballot harvesting after a key source said he was bribed to participate.

“@TulsiGabbard - You, along with everyone else who amplified this fraudulent story, owe Rep. Omar a public apology,” the New York congresswoman tweeted Tuesday.

A U.S. House special election in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district on Tuesday is essentially a do-over after a candidate’s 2018 victory was negated by allegations of illegal ballot harvesting. The election could flip a longtime Republican district, and has shifted national attention to the issue of ballot harvesting, the arguments in favor of and against it, and how different states regulate the practice.

High stakes were matched by some of President Trump's harshest campaign rhetoric yet at a rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on Monday night, with just hours to go until voters there head to the polls in a pivotal toss-up special election that will decide the winner of a long-contested -- and long-vacant -- House seat.

"To stop the far-left, you must vote in tomorrow's special election," Trump told attendees, before slamming Democratic candidate Dan McCready as a dangerous proponent of "sanctuary cities" and rolling back gun rights.

Ballot harvesting is the collecting and submitting of absentee or mail-in voter ballots by volunteers or workers. It occurs in some areas of the U.S. where voting by mail is common, but is illegal in some other states.

Arizona banned the practice except for family members and caregivers. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed a Ninth Circuit Court ruling that overturned the ban in 2016 and a U.S. District Court judge upheld the ban in 2018.

The North Carolina 9th District seat has remained vacant for a third of the 116th Congress — the fallout from a brazen case of election fraud that may have affected the outcome of the 2018 election. Allegedly, a consultant for Republican candidate Mark Harris coordinated an effort to illegally collect unsealed absentee ballots, mislead election authorities and, in some cases, fill out ballots on behalf of voters. As a result, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted in February to redo the congressional race and later set a new election for Sept. 10.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The closely-watched special U.S. House election being held here Tuesday is taking place in the shadow of a political scandal that, according to the candidates, is having a real impact on the race.

But this time around, the issue is not the illegal ballot harvesting that marred last year's contest, it's the fact the one of the candidates has been effectively running for over two years.