An absentee ballot witness said Monday that a Bladen County, N.C., electioneer paid her to collect absentee ballots from last month's midterm elections.
Ginger Eason told WSOCTV, a local news station in Charlotte, that Leslie McCrae Dowless, Jr. paid her between $75 and $100 to pick up completed absentee ballots for North Carolina's 9th District, the results of which are being officially investigated.
“I was helping McCrae pick up ballots,” Eason said to the news outlet, referring to the Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor who appears to be at the center of the probe.
Eason added that she didn't see who people were voting for, but that she never mailed the ballots. Instead, she gave them to Dowless, adding that he did not mention to her that what she was doing was illegal.
Dowless, known locally as McCrae, has been named twice in sworn affidavits as someone who worked for Republican candidate Mark Harris Mark HarrisWoman says she was paid to collect absentee ballots in North Carolina House race NC elections board chairman resigns, says he wants election fraud probe to continue without distraction AP retracts call in North Carolina congressional race amid fraud investigation MORE's campaign against Democrat Dan McCready.
When asked by WSOCTV about paying people to pick up ballots, Dowless said that he had no comment.
WSOCTV said that it has found what appears to be a targeted effort to illegally pick up ballots in Bladen County.
The news station reported that it consistently found the same people signing as witnesses for the people voting, something it notes is unusual. Eason was listed as signing as a witness for 28 submitted and accepted absentee ballot envelopes.
McCready conceded to Harris and said he would not request a recount after being down approximately 700 votes in November.
But the elections board elected not to certify the results, citing “claims of irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee by-mail voting.”
Bladen County has received increased attention stemming from voter affidavits submitted to the board that allege scenarios where people came to their homes and asked to hand in their absentee ballots.
Officials have also been probing uncommonly high numbers of absentee ballots submitted in Bladen County.
North Carolina's state elections board chairman, Andy Penry, resigned on Saturday, saying that he won't allow himself to be used as an "instrument of distraction."
DrKakistocracy on December 4th, 2018 at 02:35 UTC »
My crude attempt at a PoppinKream style summary of this situation:
This all started a few days ago when the bipartisan North Carolina State Board of Elections(NCBSE) voted unanimously 9-0 to deny certification for NC-9, where Mark Harris(R) had eked out a narrow win. [1] [2]
This decision stemmed from extreme irregularities with absentee ballots in Bladen county, during both the general election and the Republican primary.
The TLDR? There is mounting evidence that:
Absentee ballots were either changed, discarded, forged, or some combination of the three. That these actions were executed by operatives from the Harris campaign.The actual details are complex and rapidly evolving, so here's a few sources that break them down:
https://popular.info/p/exclusive-absentee-ballot-envelopes
http://www.oldnorthstatepolitics.com/2018/11/ncs-closest-congressional-contest-gets.html
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-heck-is-happening-in-that-north-carolina-house-race/
Recent Podcast: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/politics-podcast-something-seems-fishy-in-north-carolina
The person at the heart of this scheme is McCrae Dowless, a contractor for the Harris campaign. He was accused of similar fraud in 2016 [1] [2], but the story just sort of...went away.
But perhaps Harris didn't know about Dowless? Well...no. Harris not only knew Dowless but had recommended his 'services' to other local politicians.
At this point, it's looking increasingly likely that another election will be held. If so, the triggering mechanism matters:
The GOP can't like any of these options, but a special election rematch against a scandal tarnished candidate isn't a good place to be given how close the original election was.
Bonus round:
Most people in this sub are aware of the racist 'Voter ID' laws passed by the NCGOP in recent years, all advanced under the thin pretense of election security. One exception to those laws? Absentee ballots in NC do not require ID and—in a strikingly convenient turn of events—are disproportionately used by older, whiter, more republican cohorts.
Why be concerned about absentee ballots? Because absentee ballot fraud, while still extremely rare, is the most common vector for election fraud. [1] [2]
TruePolicyBeam on December 4th, 2018 at 01:58 UTC »
Never forget about the Mexican mother of 4, a permanent US resident with a 6th grade education, who got confused with voter registration forms and was sentenced to 8 years in jail.
SkyModTemple on December 4th, 2018 at 01:44 UTC »
Welp, we got our first witness. The Republican campaign hired an operative who in turn paid people to go around illegally collecting absentee ballots. There seem to be major irregularities in the absentee ballots cast in the counties where these people were operating. They were also signing the envelopes as witnesses.