NC Officials Once Sought Charges Against Man At Center Of Election Scandal

Travis Long/The News & Observer
Travis Long/The News & Observer
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina elections officials had sought criminal charges after the 2016 election against the man now at the center of absentee ballot fraud allegations, but prosecutors didn’t indict him before the disputed 2018 congressional race.

Documents released Wednesday by the North Carolina State Board of Elections detail its investigation over the last two years into Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. Elections officials describe the 62-year-old convicted felon as a “person of interest” in their ongoing investigation into irregularities with the Nov. 6 vote in the state’s 9th District.

Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. State leaders from both parties concede a do-over election might now be needed.

Investigators are probing whether Dowless and others working on Harris’ behalf ran an illegal operation to collect large numbers of absentee ballots from voters.

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Notable Replies

  1. There are two categories of G.O.P. operatives - “indicted” and “not indicted… yet.”

  2. …and in this case, a previously convicted felon.

    It makes you wonder why the prosecutors didn’t act with an indictment based on his 2016 activities. Was the evidence too skimpy? Or was the prosecutor a “party over country” Republican? Well, North Carolina, it looks like you’ve got yourself one hell of a mess here. A whole kettle full of corruption…

  3. This guy has the look of someone who speaks authentic frontier gibberish…

  4. I believe this earlier investigation is the one featured on a segment of This American Life. And it was reported that at the time in 2016 that GOP candidate Harris’ son worked in the US Attorney’s office when the referral was made.

  5. This guy is the poster child for voter fraud…except he’s somebody’s relative or good friend, he cheats for Republicans, and he’s white.

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