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From Ben Kamisar, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Rich Gardella
WASHINGTON – Dowless Leslie McCrae, the man at the center of allegations of election fraud that rocked the 9th North Carolina Convention The district has a long and rich history as a political agent in the district.
The candidates for whom he works often perform better than expected among voters absent from one of the counties in the district, which is one of the reasons he was engaged in various political campaigns. Over the years.
But the public records paint a more complicated picture, linking it to earlier charges of collecting irregular ballots and showing that he spent time in jail for a non-crime-related crime conviction. elections.
Dowless is undergoing a thorough review. since the North Carolina State Elections and Enforcement Council has decided not to confirm the apparent victory of Republican Mark Harris to 905 votes against Democrat Dan McCready in the 9th ongressional race. The council, a public body responsible for the administration and certification of elections, instead convened a public hearing on 21 December to "investigate allegations of fraudulent irregularities and activities related to the vote. by correspondence ".
Under state law, the board has the power to order a new election in a given contest if it determines that there is enough "d". irregularities or irregularities "to" alter the results of the election as a whole and cast doubt on its fairness ".
The board publicly named Dowless a person of interest in his investigation, though he's been looking at Dowless's activities since at least 2016.
Much of the concerns of the last election relate to the command of Harris The advantage of postal voting results in Bladen County, a rural area between Fayetteville and Wilmington, in the southeast of State.
The Republican won more than 61% of the vote. Bladen County postal ballots, a disconcerting margin since only 19% of the accepted postal ballots belonged to registered Republican voters.
Other possible anomalies in postal voting data, particularly in neighboring Robeson County, also raised questions. Experts and investigators.
Dowless's declared specialty is his efforts to "get out the vote," including the postal vote in Bladen County.
And His Candidates Succeeded – A Washington Post analysis revealed that at least five candidates for whom Dowless had been working since 2010 had obtained better results on the ballots sent by Bladen than by mail. outside the county.
One of those races was the Republican primary of 2018, where Harris dethroned outgoing representative Robert Pittenger, who helped him out. winning 437 out of 456 ballot papers in Bladen County. Harris won the district by 829 votes in total.
The Red Dome Group, a political advisory firm of the region, participated in the campaign in primary and general elections on various tasks, including the press, strategy and specific efforts on postal voting. in Bladen County. The new federal election records show that Red Dome specifically led the work "Bladen absent". The campaign owes more than $ 34,000 to Red Dome for this work, says the document.
Red Dome hired Dowless as an "independent contractor," confirmed to founder of the company, Andy Yates, documents published by Obsult 1965. the electoral council designated Dowless as the central figure of a mail-ballot collection operation, where a handful of people requested ballots by mail, then paid associates then signed these certified certificates as than witnesses.
According to an analysis of the NBC News. Of the Bladen County Election Council documents released by the State Council, Dowless received 590 ballot request forms from late August to late October 2018. A Jessica Dowless also returned 185 applications. The entries on the document were handwritten, with signatures for both Dowlesses.
Links to Dowless McCrea are also visible on the completed mail-ballot certifications, which witnesses must sign to ensure that the vote has been completed in accordance with the wishes of the elector.
At least 86 returned ballots include witness signatures from people with Dowless connections, those who have a last name with him, or who have been related to him in one way or another. Under state law, two witnesses must sign a certification attached to the outside of a postal ballot.
Cherly Kinlaw and Ginger Eason, who signed several voting certificates, told WSOC TV that they were working for Dowless.
Jessica Dowless and Sandra Dowless also signed a handful of postal voting certifications.
Dozens of certifications have also been signed by Lisa Britt. Under his signature, Brittine indicates the same address as Sandra Dowless, his mother and the former wife of McCrea Dowless. But residents of their social housing complex say that she stays there only occasionally.
It is not illegal to ask for ballot papers by mail for many voters, nor to sign as a witness for dozens of ballots returned – though there are certain restrictions that prevent candidates from voting field staff or some long-term care providers as witnesses.
But it is illegal if witnesses sign certificates for ballots that have not been completed by the elector. It is also illegal for a third party to take possession of an elector's ballot.
Up to now, there have been numerous allegations of illegal activities.
In their WSOC TV interviews, Kinlaw and Eason reported that Dowless paid them to collect voters' ballots.
Two voters in Bladen County told NBC News that Britt had come home to retrieve their mail ballots, which Britt denied to Buzzfeed News.
Britt also seems to have signed his name on Robeson County's voting certifications.
Dowless did not react to NBC News' multiple attempts to reach him, but he had previously denied committing any wrongdoing at the Charlotte Observer.
Red Dome did not answer.
The state electoral council summoned the Harris and Red Dome campaign, as well as the Bladen County Sheriff's campaign, James McVicker, who also collaborated with Dowless, Link with his investigation.
There are links between Harris and Dowless outside of Red Dome as well, but there is no evidence that the candidate is aware of an incorrect treatment of the ballots.
Pete Givens, a form. The Republican candidate for Charlotte City Council told NBC News that Harris had introduced him to Dowless, where Dowless described his strategy of distributing mail ballot application forms.
Givens stated that everything Dowless had described to him at that meeting was in law and that he was unaware of Dowless's criminal history. But while Givens briefly paid the Dowless help for the process, no Dowless partner has worked for the Givens and Givens campaign has stopped using these methods after a few months, as this did not work for the campaign.
Harris published a . Twitter video statement on Friday claiming that his campaign was cooperating fully and that he was unaware of any wrongdoing.
"If this investigation uncovers evidence of illegal activities on either side, at a level such that it could have changed the results of the election, then I He would unreservedly support a new election to ensure that all voters have confidence in their results, "he said.
The latest controversy does not concern Dowless's first contact with the law or misdirected ballot charges.
After the re-election of Dowless to the Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation Council in 2016, an unpaid position, he filed a complaint with the North Carolina Elections Council alleging possible absenteeism. allocate fraud by his opponents. Although he won his seat convincingly, his main opponent won more than 29% of the vote as a registered candidate.
But two voters also complained to the board of directors in this race, alleging that people related to Dowless had committed an irregularity
. One of them stated that after helping a Dowless family complete the mail ballot application forms, she never received these ballots. When they tried to vote in person, they were told that they could not because they had already voted by mail.
The second complaint of a voter whose absentee application was signed by a Dowless partner states that another man briefly took possession of it. his family's ballots because he said he had to show them to his boss to get paid. He did not eventually return the ballots in the window to which he had promised, but it was not known he would ever do it.
When questioned by the Election Committee about these complaints, Dowless denied committing a wrongdoing, but was not familiar with the complaint. he pleaded against his opponent.
He then refused to pay the staff members for each vote requested, ordering them to fill out the ballot of another person or asking his aides to take possession of the ballot paper. another voter.
The episode was covered by the radio show This American Life on WBEZ Chicago at the time.
Just a few weeks before the 2018 elections, the council sent letters to constituents of Bladen County who had requested ballots by mail, warning them not to let anyone fill in or return their ballots. of vote.
A source close to the investigation who asked for anonymity told NBC News
Decades earlier, Dowless pled guilty to fraud insurance fraud in 1992 and to checks of 1560 and 15 dollars, according to court documents.
In 1991, the Fayetteville Observer reported that Leslie McCrae Dowless and his wife, Sandra Kay Hooks Brown Dallas, were charged with purchasing a life insurance policy from the former employee of Dowless. To obtain this policy, he was accused of falsifying the deceased's signature and having fraudulently dated it a few days before his death.
The alleged scheme was successful, with the couple receiving a check for more than $ 163,000 from the insurance company, the
Offender Registry of the Public Safety Department of Carolina. North shows that Dowless has served a six-month sentence of imprisonment on the charge of insurance fraud, along with shorter sentences for a worthless check.
– Rich Gardella contributed from Washington, Leigh Ann Caldwell, contribution from Bladen County, North Carolina, and Steve Swicegood, Charlotte contribution
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