TAR HEEL, N.C. Emma Shipmans house is hidden away at the end of a long and narrow, bumpy dirt road. But over the last week, the 87-year-old says shes been stunned at how many reporters have made the trek.

Shipman holds key evidence in a closely watched probe into irregularities involving absentee ballots in the states 9th Congressional District. Shortly before this years election , Shipman says a woman came to her home and took her unsealed but filled-out absentee ballot, which is illegal in North Carolina. Then, a few days before Election Day, Shipman says the woman returned with a sealed ballot and stamps and asked her to turn it in. Shipman said she was suspicious, so she went to the polls on her own and decided to cast an in-person vote instead.

State investigators are trying to figure out how many more people like Shipman were illegally asked to turn over their absentee ballots. If they find enough irregularities, they could choose to order a new election. HuffPost spoke with voters, including Shipman, whose absentee ballots werent returned to election officials in Bladen County, the center of the investigation. Some were surprised to learn of the irregularities at all, while one woman said she was angry.

Shipman, who is black, submitted a written affidavit to the state board of elections through the state Democratic Party last week. Sitting in her living room Wednesday evening, she said she was glad she spoke up but had grown increasingly more scared the more attention she got.

I wonder what the other side is going to do. They see me on TV and see me talk and all that stuff, theyre going to come back and get on me or what, she said. People are so mean that it isnt even funny. Theres something they may come back to do to me. I think about that, too.