Kim Strach, the Executive Director of North Carolina’s Board of Elections, made a startling revelation at a public hearing in the state’s capital on Monday, telling attendees that “a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election in Bladen and Robeson Counties.”
On January 9, 2018, a federal court struck down the state’s Congressional map, declaring that it was unlawfully gerrymandered to favor Republican candidates. After that time, Republicans in the state engaged new strategies to win, including the plan that was hatched by GOP candidate Mark Harris and political operative McCrae Dowless in the 9th District — a race that’s been under investigation since the midterm elections.
Strach told the gathering that Dowless had “filled out and mailed in incomplete or blank ballots from both his office and home.” That was the result of the investigation initiated after the state board refused to certify the election when they discovered the irregularities in the election. She also said that Dowless had “paid people in cash to collect requests for absentee ballots and the ballots themselves,” and that he’d “paid people to falsify signatures on absentee ballots indicating that they had witnessed those ballots being filled out.”
Joe Bruno, a reporter for WSOC Television in North Carolina, noted in a tweet that Dowless had undergone an extensive process for concealing the illegal behavior:
NCSBE says McCrae Dowless took these steps to hide these actions #NC09 @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/gPKjWXjVCU
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) February 18, 2019
Numerous witnesses corroborated Strach’s account, including an ex-wife of Dowless, who told investigators that her ex had assured the co-conspirators that if they “stuck together” nothing could happen to them, because investigators had no evidence.
You can read the findings of Strach’s office in full here.
This could further extend the victory of Democrats in the November election if the Board produces the concrete evidence that Strach is in possession of before a federal court, as well as put a damper on the state GOP’s efforts to win by any means necessary.
Featured image via screen capture
