Officials Describe ‘Coordinated, Unlawful’ Scheme In Disputed N.C. Election
Three months after the midterm elections, North Carolina officials are publicly laying out their evidence for the first time that the outcome in the state’s 9th Congressional District may have been tainted by election fraud.
“The evidence will show that a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially-resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election,” said North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach, in her opening statement Monday at the beginning of what could be a multi-day hearing to consider evidence that investigators have been gathering since late last year.
Monday’s hearing kicked off with a key witness detailing how the alleged scheme worked and suggesting that the operative who was behind the absentee ballot operation sought to obstruct the state investigation into it.
In the unofficial tally for the 9th District race, Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. But the election has been tainted by allegations that an operative hired by Harris collected and potentially manipulated some vote-by-mail ballots.
She said that not only did Dowless pay people to pick up ballots, $125 per 50 ballots collected, but that actions were taken meant to “obstruct the investigation and testimony provided at this hearing.”
The first witness called by the State Board was Lisa Britt, who said she was paid by Dowless to register people to vote and to collect ballots.
Britt described how Dowless gave her specific instructions for how to return ballots so as to not “raise red flags” with the State Board of Elections: using post offices close to the voters, and never mailing more than nine or ten ballot envelopes at a time.
She said she had “no idea” how many ballots she picked up in total.
Britt also described how Dowless tried to interfere with the investigation, saying that he told her and others “as long as we all stick together, we’ll all be fine because they don’t have anything on us.”