Election fraud suspect in 9th District pleads guilty; 4 others still due in court

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — The first of five remaining 9th Congressional District election fraud suspects pleaded guilty in a Wake County court on Monday.

The previous suspects in the case pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 100 hours of community service, with the exception of McCrae Dowless.

Dowless was the alleged ringleader. He died before facing trial.

Dowless worked in the 2018 congressional race for then-Republican candidate Mark Harris, who appeared to have received the most votes in the general election for the 9th District seat in south-central North Carolina.

But as Channel 9 discovered, allegations against Dowless surfaced, and testimony and other information revealed at a State Board of Elections hearing described him running an illegal “ballot harvesting” operation for the 2018 general election in Bladen County. In it, according to testimony, Dowless and his helpers gathered up hundreds of absentee ballots from voters by offering to put them in the mail.

MORE COVERAGE:

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• Man at center of US House District 9 ballot fraud rejects plea deal, state trial date set
• US House District 9 race investigation: How we got here
• U.S. House District 9: Democrat McCready concedes to Republican opponent Harris

Jessica Dowless pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to swear falsely for signing as a witness on absentee ballot return envelopes when she had not actually seen the voter cast the ballot. She was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Lisa Britt, Woody Hester, Caitlyn Croom and Matthew Mathis are still due in court. Late last month, District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says the cases were being continued due to multiple illnesses.

Some of workers said they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots, forge signatures on them and even fill in votes for local candidates. It is generally against the law in North Carolina for anyone other than the voter or a family member to handle someone’s completed ballot.

The election board voted unanimously to order a new 9th District election. No charges were filed against Harris, who didn’t run in the subsequent election won in September 2019 by Republican Dan Bishop. The state investigation also led to charges of similar absentee ballot activities in Bladen for the 2016 general election and 2018 primary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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