RALEIGH, N.C. _ The top campaign consultant for Republican Mark Harris denied Tuesday that he knew a Bladen County political operative was allegedly engaged in unlawful ballot collection during the 2018 campaign in North Carolina's 9th District.
Andy Yates, the founder of Red Dome Group, testified before the state board of elections that the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, assured him on several occasions that he was doing nothing illegal. The testimony came on the second day of the board's hearing into voting irregularities in the 9th District, one day after workers for Dowless outlined illegal collection of mail-in absentee ballots.
"I was shocked and disturbed to find out that was not the case," Yates said, his voice rising. "I'm not going to put up with that junk, and frankly that crap."
State board investigators on Monday said they had uncovered "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election in Bladen and Robeson counties." The counties are located within the 9th District. The state board has declined to certify results in the district. Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in unofficial totals.
Dowless, a convicted felon and elected official in Bladen County, is at the center of the investigation. Dowless declined to testify Monday unless he was granted immunity. Yates said Harris personally hired Dowless to conduct get-out-the-vote operations in Bladen County before Harris hired Yates.
"I felt Mr. Dowless was a done deal before I was even brought onto the campaign," Yates testified.
In several hours of testimony, Yates explained Dowless' relationship with the Harris campaign _ chronicling near-daily phone conversations between himself and Dowless, Dowless' craving of political information, "frequent conversations" between Harris and Dowless and how little oversight Red Dome had over Dowless.
The Harris campaign paid Dowless through Yates' Red Dome Group. It paid $4 for absentee ballot requests in the primary election and $5 for absentee ballot requests in the general election. The campaign paid Dowless $1,200 per month during the primary and $1,625 per month during the general election, in addition to reimbursing Dowless for office space, office supplies and workers to collect request forms, place yard signs and staff the polls.
Dowless was paid $131,375 by Red Dome Group _ with all but about $18,000 coming for work on the Harris campaign. Dowless also worked for Red Dome Group clients Bladen County Sheriff Jim McVicker, state Rep. Brenden Jones and Columbus County sheriff candidate Jody Greene.
Yates said Dowless on numerous times assured him that he told his workers not to handle, touch, collect or mail in absentee ballots. Yates said testimony on Monday changed his mind.
"I don't know what to believe about McCrae Dowless," Yates said. "I don't know whether or not to believe anything Mr. Dowless ever told me."
Harris received 437 mail-in absentee ballots to 17 for incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger in the GOP primary in May, a margin Yates attributed to the resources the campaign devoted to the county and Dowless' knowledge of the county and its people.
Harris is expected to be called to testify Wednesday, board chairman Bob Cordle said late Tuesday. His attorney said he will take the stand and answer questions.
Earlier Tuesday, testimony established that local election officials prematurely tabulated early vote results at Bladen County's lone early voting site.
Workers are not supposed to tabulate the results or look at the tallies until Election Day. Tabulating early is a violation of election law and could give one side a competitive advantage.
Poll worker Agnes Willis had suggested in an affidavit filed in mid-December that the results had been tabulated early and had leaked. At the time, Republicans said if the early-voting totals had indeed leaked, it would justify a new election.
"This action by election officials would be a fundamental violation of the sense of fair play, honesty and integrity that the Republican Party stands for," state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement in December. "The people involved in this must be held accountable and should it be true, this fact alone would likely require a new election."
On Tuesday, Willis said she was in a room with other Bladen County poll workers on the last day of early voting last November. At the close of early voting, she said she saw a colleague looking at the machine tape of election results.
Willis said she heard her colleague cry, "Oh my God."
"I walked over to see what he was looking at," she said. "He had his finger on the sheriff's race. He said, 'I thought the black guy had it.'"
The Bladen sheriff race featured an African-American candidate (Hakeem Brown) against a white candidate (McVicker).
Willis and two other poll workers testified about what they saw. Though Willis said several people looked at the tape _ which resembles a roll of cash register receipts _ neither she nor others said they knew if anybody leaked it.
When the hearing ends, the board will vote to either certify Harris' victory, call for a new election or deadlock, which would throw the matter into limbo.
Republicans have since argued that Harris should be certified the winner if there's no evidence that ballot fraud would have affected the election's outcome. Democrats say there's evidence the contest was "tainted," justifying a new election.
