Key figure in 9th District absentee ballot scheme charged with Social Security fraud
Leslie McCrae Dowless, the central figure in the election fraud investigation that led to a redo of the 2018 race in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, was indicted this month on charges he lied in an application for Social Security benefits.
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But beginning in April 2014, the Social Security Administration found that Dowless had other income, and, according to indictment, was ineligible for some Social Security payments.
Again in November 2016, Dowless claimed a disability and that he had no other source of income. About two years later, according to the indictment, the Social Security Administration again determined that Dowless had been working – as a political consultant with an income of over $100,000 – and had failed to report that income.
"From in or around March 2017, and continuing until in or around November 2018, in the Eastern District of North Carolina and elsewhere, the Defendant, LESLIE MCCRAE DOWLESS JR., did knowingly, intentionally and willfully embezzle, steal, purloin and convert to his own use and the use of another, on a recurring basis, money belonging to the United States exceeding the sum of $1,000, to which he knew he was not entitled, namely, Social Security Title XVI Supplemental Security Income, and Title II Retirement Insurance Benefits payments issued to DOWLESS, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.
If he is convicted, the indictment states, Dowless would have to repay at least $14,203.10. He would also face up to 10 years in prison and fines.
Dowless, 64, also faces criminal charges – two counts of obstruction of justice and one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, illegal possession of an absentee ballot, perjury and solicitation to commit perjury – for his role in the absentee ballot fraud scandal that forced a new election in North Carolina's 9th District.
According to testimony from a State Board of Elections hearing in February 2019, Dowless paid people to go door to door to first sign people up to vote by mail and later to collect those absentee ballots. Dowless' crew sometimes completed ballots for voters and also certified dozens of absentee ballots in a central office instead of in front of individual voters, witnesses said during the hearing.
North Carolina law prohibits anyone except close relatives from taking an absentee ballot from a voter.
Dowless has, through his attorney, previously denied any wrongdoing.
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