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Leslie McCrae Dowless, a member of the Bladen County Political Council, was found guilty of insurance fraud in 1992 and was linked to questionable mail-in voting activities in another election. He is at the center of an investigation into unusual activities in the county.
Dowless worked for Republican candidate Mark Harris, a Baptist minister who garnered 905 votes more than Democrat and retired Marine businessman Dan McCready.
Last week, the state's Elections and Enforcement Council refused to certify that Harris was the winner in that he was investigating a possible misconduct. If the nine-member board of directors determines that the election has been sufficiently tarnished to cast doubt on the outcome, he may hold another election.
The probe appears to focus on Bladen and Robeson counties, each of which had an unusually high rate of requests for mail ballots and non-returned postal ballots.
In Bladen County, officials recorded in person the persons who submitted the requests for postal voting. These recordings were made public by the state election council late Tuesday afternoon.
The council also issued envelopes of 184 postal ballots in Bladen County, which they received as a return to the sender's mail because they could not be delivered. These ballots were requested in one form or another, but the designated addresses were impossible to distribute.
The counties of Bladen and Dowless have already been at the center of the controversy surrounding postal votes. In 2014, Dowless worked for Jim McVicker, who was little elected the sheriff amid allegations of misconduct on the part of voters. McVicker did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday and his office said that he was not available.
In 2016, Dowless – this time as a winning candidate in a race for the Bladen Water and Soil Conservation District – declared irregularities in the mail ballot. . The electoral commission rejected his complaint.
During the recent elections of the 9th Congress, the mail-order polls were favorable to candidates who use Dowless.
In 2016, Todd Johnson, a Republican who hired Dowless in opposition to Rep Robert Pittenger in a primary, won 221 of the 226 votes cast in the district, even though Johnson finished third in the primary. Johnson did not respond to requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday.
This year Harris won 437 mail ballots in Bladen County against 17 for Pittenger, although there was no allegation of falsification of ballots during this race. In the general election in Bladen County, Harris won 420 absentee votes, compared to 258 for McCready.
Wake County District Attorney, Lorrin Freeman, stated that his office and the State Investigation Bureau had opened a criminal investigation into voting irregularities in Bladen County in 2016.
Freeman told CNN that she had opened the investigation in February on the basis of information provided by the state election council. The same information was sent to the Bladen County District Attorney, Jon David, she said, but he asked Freeman to take the lead for the investigation.
"This investigation is ongoing and now encompasses the electoral cycles of 2016 and 2018 and focuses on what appear to be irregularities in postal voting," Freeman said.
She stated that the investigation, which includes the examination of documents and the questioning of witnesses, is currently on Bladen County, but could go beyond that. She also stated that she was in contact with the federal authorities, but did not provide further details.
Dowless is also at the center of allegations of falsification of mail ballots. A set of 161 ballots obtained by CNN showed that nine people individually signed as "witnesses" of at least 10 mail ballots. Many of these nine people are loosely related to Dowless, reveals an analysis of social media accounts and public records.
North Carolina requires witnesses to sign ballot papers by mail. Usually, these witnesses are family members or friends. But a CNN review found that three witnesses had signed more than 40 newsletters each, another 30 and three other people over 10.
One of those people, Ginger Eason, said at the time. affiliate of CNN, WSOC, which Dowless had paid him between 75 and 100 USD. per week to pick up the finished ballots. She said they gave it to Dowless and do not really know what happened afterward.
Lacy Allison, a Bladenboro constituent, told CNN on Tuesday that Lisa Britt, a Dowless partner, had completed a request for a mail ballot for him. Allison said that Britt had told her that she would bring it back for him to sign – but he never saw it again.
He shared Britt's phone number with CNN, but when she was contacted, Britt said that she had no comments to make.
Emma Shipman, a resident of Bladen County who filed an affidavit with the state election board, said Tuesday that she was not interested in voting and did not know why a mail ballot had arrived – but that she had given it to a woman who came to her door offering to help fill out the form and make it .
Shipman stated that she did not know who she had voted for.
"I do not know what happened," she said.
In an affidavit submitted to the Elections Committee by Democrats in North Carolina, a man said he spoke to Dowless in April and told him that he was working on ballot papers by correspondence for Harris and McVicker this year and more than 80 people were working. for him.
The Harris campaign acknowledged receiving a subpoena of documents emanating from the state election office.
"I want to emphasize – again – that the campaign was aware of no illegal behavior in relation to the 9th district race, however, the campaign is intended to cooperate with all Legal inquiries into the conduct of the election and, like everyone, is awaiting the outcome of the State Board's investigation, "said John Branch, a Harris campaign lawyer, in a statement.
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