Former North Carolina County Official Makes New Claims of Election Fraud

A former election official from Bladen County, North Carolina, presented new evidence of electoral fraud in a district subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

In an affidavit before the state election council last week, Jens Lutz, the first vice-president of the Bladen County Electoral Council, said his office had received "several" falsified forms of postal voting requests at the 2018 election – including one on behalf of a deceased person.

The Lutz Declaration is important because state investigators are investigating irregularities regarding postal ballots in the region. The congressional race in the 9th district of North Carolina is the last unresolved of the country. Republican Mark Harris unofficially leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, but state officials can order a new election if they find enough evidence to confirm that the vote was tainted with fraud or irregularity.

In the affidavit of Lutz, who resigned from Bladen County Council. elections earlier this month, officials have received false requests for postal voting. Some of the false requests were made on behalf of the family of board members, including Cynthia Shaw, the county's chief electoral officer. Lutz stated that McCrae Dowless, a political agent and a person of interest to the investigation, had close relations with Shaw, who had resigned from the Bladen County Electoral Council. in November

. from our supervisory duties, we discovered that several correspondence voting application forms had been submitted for the 2018 general election, including an application form on behalf of one deceased person, another on behalf of a parent of another member of the board [19659005] Member Bobby Ludlum and another presented on behalf of a member of Mrs. Shaw's family Lutz writes in his affidavit, which was submitted to the commission by McCready campaign lawyers and made public Sunday night.

What Lutz does not say in the affidavit how many falsified forms the council has received. He did not immediately respond to a request for an interview on Monday.

In his affidavit, Lutz stated that Shaw had discussed the deceased's application form with Dowless instead of notifying state officials.

"When I asked Ms. Shaw if she had provided to the State Elections Board the [19659005] postal ballot request form that had been submitted in the name of the deceased she had 39, informed that she had not done so and that she had instead contacted Mr. Dowless and told him about it, "said Lutz, according to Lutz. to the document. "I had previously provided a copy of the application form and a copy of the death certificate to the state election board."

A Dowless attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Dowless, who worked for the Harris campaign, seems to have hired people to fetch voters' ballot papers, which is not allowed by North Carolina law. Lutz stated in his affidavit that Dowless had used a provision of the North Carolina Public Records Act to know when ballot papers would be sent to voters, which would allow him to send the workers the recover shortly after arrival. Harris has personally approved the hiring of Dowless because of his expertise in the field of postal voting.

Lutz already had a relationship with Dowless. The two men created a group of policy consultants in 2014 according to The Charlotte Observer . Lutz told WECT that he had been wary of Dowless for a long time and claimed to have created the company to monitor him.

In his affidavit, Lutz stated that in previous years he had understood that Bladen County election officials had authorized Dowless to examine the unexpressed postal voting request forms. thus giving access to social security numbers, driving licenses and state identification. as elector signatures. According to Lutz, this information would allow Dowless to request a postal vote from anyone who had already submitted one.

The McCready campaign also submitted to the Council of State sworn affidavits from 14 electors who reported unusual and potentially illegal acts involving postal votes. Five voters said they learned that their names appeared on a list of voters who asked for a postal vote, even though they had never asked for a vote. Some of those voters said they had given their ballots – some unsealed – to Dowless and other people who had gone to their homes. In North Carolina, it is forbidden for anyone other than a close relative to take custody of a mail-in ballot.

Other electors stated in their affidavits that they had received ballots by mail, even if they had never asked for them.

In 2016, two Dowless employees told state investigators that they were being paid to request and collect ballots by mail. The state electoral council briefed federal prosecutors and the state government in early 2017, warning that this would likely happen again if it was not resolved.

It was also suggested that the totals of the advance votes could have been disclosed in Bladen County. Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the Republican Party of North Carolina, said the party would support new elections if the results of the advance polls were disclosed and if that could have affected the outcome of the race. Woodhouse said earlier this month that it was "almost certain" that the totals of the anticipated votes had been leaked.

North Carolinians can vote early, either in person or by mail. In his affidavit, Lutz stated that Shaw would easily have been able to view the absentee numbers mailed in with the help of a USB stick. He also stated that the security at the council office was "lax" and that the key to the room where the ballots were kept by mail was hanging on the wall.

The State Council on Election Monitoring and Ethics is scheduled to hold a public hearing on irregularities on January 11 and then decide to hold new elections.