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North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Harris (R) announced the hiring of a campaign assistant at the center of an investigation for voter fraud, according to three people close to the election campaign, despite warnings that the agent could have used dubious tactics to deliver the votes.
Harris looked for policewoman Leslie McCrae Dowless after losing an election in 2016 in which Dowless had helped one of his opponents win an overwhelming share of the postal vote in a key county.
Local investigators say whether Harris knew his campaign may have had inappropriate tactics became a central part of the research process to find out if election irregularities have affected the 9th district, in which Harris Democrat Dan McCready leads with 905 votes.
This question is also the Republican Party, whose leaders rallied around Harris, a 52-year-old evangelical pastor from the suburbs of Charlotte. Party leaders are now abandoning Harris and trying to limit the fallout of a scandal that has delayed the certification of the last undecided federal contest of the 2018 election cycle.
The North Carolina Elections Council has published subpoenas to appear in the Harris campaign general consultant Red Dome group. In addition, the Wake County Attorney's Office in Raleigh, the FBI and federal prosecutors are reviewing voting irregularities in the 9th district.
Dowless, 62, has declined multiple requests for maintenance. Neither Todd Johnson, the main candidate who had previously used Dowless's services, nor his political consultant, Zach Almond, could be contacted for comment.
Leslie McCrae Dowless is not sitting in her kitchen in Bladenboro, North Carolina. Voting services for Republican candidate Mark Harris in North Carolina's 9th congressional district. The state election office has decided not to certify the results of the 9th election, which includes Bladen County, between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready, due to possible election fraud involving postal ballots. (Justin Kase Conder / For The Washington Post)
Harris and Red Dome's Harris Advisor, Harris Yates, confirmed in statements last week that Dowless had been paid for a field effort, while claiming that they were not aware of any illegal activity. 19659009] "I was absolutely unaware of any reprehensible acts," Harris said in a video released Dec. 7. Harris' lawyer, John Branch, declined to comment on this article.
Harris was warned of a risk of fraud on the first day of June 2016, during his first bid for the 9th District congressional seat, according to people familiar with the conversation.
The outgoing Congressman and the primary school winner had only received a postal ballot in rural Bladen County. Harris, who came in second, won four. Johnson, the lowest-ranked contender, in the meantime, had received almost all of them – 221.
The only explanation, according to the advisors, was given to Harris that night in Charlotte, was that something fishy was wrong. was produced during this third campaign, according to
Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris speaks to the media at a news conference in Matthews, North Carolina, in November. (Chuck Burton / AP)
A year later, they said, when Harris had decided to run for Congress, the candidate had personally directed the hiring of Dowless, a skilled field agent and originally from Bladen County, which had contributed to the obtaining of this unusual result. 2016.
Beth Harris, Harris' wife, said in an SMS on Thursday: "We do not actually remember any" help "who would have said anything on the evening of the day. "Election" of 2016. She added: "It was a crazy night where we were"
[ The Republican authorities had been warned very early of voting irregularities in North Carolina
One person said that Harris' decision to hire Dowless was partly due to his awareness that he would have defeated Rep Robert. Pittenger, he had won the postal vote with a margin as wide as that of Johnson, third.
According to witnesses questioned and affidavits, the alleged fraudulent operation of Dowless on behalf of Harris this year was to collect sealed ballots, an illegal practice. Investigators also examine whether ballots illegally scrapped by Dowless or those working for him.
Since Dowless was paid by Red Dome, which in turn billed for the Harris campaign, the consulting firm is also subject to a thorough review.
[North Carolina election-fraud investigation centers on operative with criminal history who worked for GOP congressional candidate]
Harris decided to recruit Dowless. before his arrival at the Red Dome in June 2017, according to three people aware of the first deliberations of the campaign. And he decided to hire him despite warnings about Dowless's criminal record and his own public testimony describing questionable electoral tactics.
At about the same time, in the spring of 2017, he also introduced Dowless to Pete Givens, Harris' parishioner and candidate. for Charlotte City Council that year.
Givens ran a long course as a Republican in a strongly Democratic district with a historically low turnout. "How can we get 75,000 people who never show up back?" Givens wondered at the time, he said in an interview. Harris drove Givens to meet Dowless and Givens eventually hired him and paid him $ 800 in May 2017.
Givens said he was not aware of any act reprehensible and that he believed "that there was no way that Mark Harris knew that."
Walter McDuffie, president of the Bladen County Republican Party, told the Washington Post that he had warned of the Harris campaign against Dowless's criminal record, which includes convictions for fraud and perjury as well as for misdemeanor counterfeit for passing a worthless check. in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Harris also exchanged regular contacts with Dowless during the 2018 campaign, according to Jeff Smith, a former Dowless associate who gave him an office during the spring primary and saw it almost every day. Smith told The Post that Dowless often spoke about talking by phone with Harris about the postal mailing program. Just like Johnson in 2016, Harris beat Pittenger in the primary with an overwhelming performance among mail-order voters at Bladen, which he won 437 at 177.
Details of the voting operation Dowless correspondence was disclosed publicly in December 2016. told the state election council that its vote-abolition operation included the collection of postal ballots.
Dowless was asked to testify about the allegations he had made against an African-American group that mainly supported Democratic candidates.
After five hours of hearing, the jury questioned him about his own operations. He described paid staff members collecting postal ballots, although he said he had asked staff members to return the ballots to the electors. In North Carolina, it is illegal to tamper with or collect the ballot of anyone else.
At that time, two board members testified during the interviews that the hearing had sparked the torch of postal voting activities in Bladen County. "Everything is lost in heaven," said a member of the time, James L. Baker, Republican and former Superior Court judge.
Democrat Maja Kricker, a member of the Election Committee of the 2016 hearing, said, following Dowless's testimony, that he was not working in accordance with the law, adding that "I'm not sure." she thought Harris's campaign should have known his practices.
the Harris or Mark Harris campaign never looked at it, "she said.
The GOP-controlled council unanimously referred the evidence to federal investigators and states, but no indictment or public report was published. Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County Attorney, said that an investigation opened at the time now included the 2018 elections.
Freeman said his office was also considering whether someone One in the Bladen County Electoral Council had committed fraud.
Dowless's testimony two years ago raised questions about his relationship with former Bladen County Election Director Cynthia Shaw, who had stepped down in November.
Dowless told the Election Committee that Shaw knew that his advance voting team was putting his initials at the corner of the mail ballot application forms when he handed them in when there was a problem, you know who contact, "Dowless said.
Election officials are expected to contact electors directly to correct any omissions or discrepancies regarding their postal voting request form. Several attempts to reach Shaw were unsuccessful.
Investigators also review evidence released last week by the state election council indicating that the county council improperly printed the results of the advance poll in person three days before polling day. They want to know if the information has been inappropriately shared with a campaign.
State law prohibits drawing the results of advance voting tabulation machines before 5 pm. polling day, to protect the results and prevent campaigns to obtain an unfair advantage and redeploy their resources in recent days.
North Carolina Republican Party executive director, Dallas Woodhouse, told reporters this week that if the voting results were shared prematurely, "this is a fundamental violation of the sacredness of fair elections ", and a new election should be called.
The 2018 Congressional Polls in the 9th Congressional District put the GOP on the right path of defense at a time when Republican lawmakers in North Carolina and the country passed voter identity and voter laws. other restrictions which, in their opinion, would make it possible to repress electoral fraud.
On Wednesday, the state legislature passed a bill requiring a new primary if the state's election office ordered a new election in the 9th district – allowing Republicans to replace Harris on the ballot. This was the last sign of repugnance by Republican states over earlier demands that the state council immediately certify Harris as the winner.
The state council refused to do so last month, opening an investigation and planning to hold a hearing by December 21. The council released a statement this week stating that investigators may need more time before a hearing.
] Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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