Key witness won't testify in 9th District hearing, while others detail scheme to collect absentee ballots

Bladen County political operative McCrae Dowless was willing to take the stand if compelled, a legal maneuver that would have given him immunity under state law to anything he testified to, attorney Cynthia Singletary said.

The State Board of Elections wasn't willing to go that route, asking Dowless to testify voluntarily, as two of his underlings, his ex-wife and two Bladen County voters did Monday.

Board Chairman Robert Cordle warned Dowless that the board might "take negative inferences" from his refusal as it weighs whether to call a new election in the 9th District. But Dowless is likely the subject of an ongoing criminal inquiry to the absentee ballot accusations, and though his attorney said he's innocent, she was not willing to put him on the stand in the state board's hearings.

"As a defense attorney, it's just not good practice," Singletary said.

That's how the first day of the hearings ended. It began with Lisa Britt, one of Dowless' most active lieutenants in an apparent scheme to collect absentee ballots from voters in Bladen and Robeson counties, testifying that Dowless paid her and others to collect ballots.

That's a felony under North Carolina law, due to tampering concerns. Britt also said she filled out as many as 10 partially blank ballots, mostly voting them for Republicans in down-ballot races.

"You were voting other people's ballots," said Marc Elias, lead attorney for the second-place finisher in the 9th District race, Democrat Dan McCready.

"Yes, sir," Britt replied.

Britt said she never marked any ballots, though, for Mark Harris, the Republican with a 905-vote lead in the race. She testified that voters had already filled out that part of the ballot.

Another woman who worked with Dowless, Kelly Hendrix, testified that she collected ballots as well, but they were always sealed by the time she got them. At least two other women who worked for Dowless have told reporters they collected ballots, and they may be called to testify later this week.

Much of Britt's testimony was a reversal. She told media outlets for weeks that she never took anyone's ballot, but said on the stand Monday that she lied and had probably collected 35 to 40 of them. She said Dowless initially paid $120 for every 50 ballots but changed that to $200 a week when ballots proved hard to come by.

9th District: Dowless crew handled 1 in 5 absentee votes in Bladen County

Elias was quick to point out that more than $131,000 flowed to Dowless through Red Dome, a consulting group that worked for Harris' campaign. Red Dome's lead consultant for the campaign may testify in the hearings later this week. Harris is expected to testify as well, his legal team said Monday.

Britt also testified that Dowless reached out to her as recently as Thursday to keep her from going against him in the hearings. She said Dowless gave her and her mother, who is also Dowless' ex-wife, a suggested statement, which was put into evidence Monday.

"I can tell you that I haven't done anything wrong in the election and McCrae Dowless has never told me to do anything wrong and to my knowledge has never done anything wrong," the note stated.

This was at least the second time since November's election that Dowless tried to throw investigators off his scent, Britt testified. At an earlier meeting, she said, Dowless called a group of his campaign workers together to say "as long as we all stick together we'll be fine, because they don't have anything on us."

Plenty of NC politicos hired McCrae Dowless; they just don't want to talk about it

State Board of Elections Director Kim Strach said in her opening statements Monday that board investigators interviewed 142 voters in the inquiry, as well as 30 others involved in the case. They pulled phone and financial records and will prove, Strach said, that Dowless directed people to collect absentee ballots, including some incomplete and unsealed.

They were mailed to the local board of elections in small batches to avoid drawing attention, Strach said, and Dowless instructed his workers on details down to stamps and signature ink colors to avoid drawing attention from elections officials.

Investigators were not able to prove that early voting totals were shared prematurely with either campaign in the 9th District race, Strach said. That had been suspected, since Bladen County's early voting totals were run early, and North Carolina Republican Party officials said weeks ago this alone would be enough to force a new election. But Strach told board members Monday that her team was "unable to confirm" the totals were divulged.

She noted a number concerns, though, with security in the Bladen County Board of Elections office, including a marked key to the ballot room hanging on a wall.

Witnesses repeatedly described Dowless Monday as a father figure, a kind man who helped them out of jams. Britt said she lived with Dowless long after he and her mother, Sandra Dowless, divorced in the early 1990s. Sandra Dowless said she lived with Dowless for six months last year while recovering from surgery.

Hendrix broke into tears at the start of her testimony, saying Dowless reminded her of her father. Kimberly Robinson, one of two voters who testified Monday, said she trusted Dowless to tell her whom to vote for in past years and gave her blank ballot last year to a woman who worked with Lisa Britt.

"McCrae, he normally helped me," Robinson said. "He told me who to elect."

There were a number of confusing moments and conflicting statements Monday. Britt said she collected only one unsealed ballot, but Robinson said Britt was driving the vehicle when her unsealed ballot was picked up.

Britt also said she returned collected ballots to Brenda and Timothy Outlaw, but Timothy Outlaw told WRAL News in a telephone interview later that's not true.

Some of Monday's testimony dealt with the Bladen County Improvement Association, a political action committee that helps black politicians and Democrats in the county. A trio of PAC operatives witnessed dozens of absentee ballots during last year's elections, and a voter named Precious Hall testified Monday that two of them – Lola Wooten and Sandra Guions – collected her completed and sealed ballot last year.

Hall confirmed that she's a registered Democrat and voted like one in the 2018 election.

Britt testified that there was some sort of agreement between Dowless and the BCIA and that Wooten would use Dowless' photocopier to copy ballot request forms. Britt said she was not to collect ballots from voters Wooten and her team targeted.

"Sort of staying off each other's turf?" Harris attorney David Freedman said.

"Yes, sir," Britt replied.

What's at stake in state investigation into alleged fraud in 9th Congressional District election

At one point, Britt called the arrangement "kind of Dowless' secret weapon," but it wasn't clear what she meant.

BCIA attorney Irving Joyner said the group wasn't involved with Dowless. He and other BCIA officials have repeatedly denied any coordinated PAC effort to collect ballots last year.

Britt also testified that she returned a ballot to a voter named Emma Shipman at BCIA President Horace Munn's request. Munn denied that in an interview with WRAL News, saying he never made that request.

Munn said it's unclear what was going on with Wooten's photocopying.

"There's something to that," he said. "But that has nothing to do with my organization ... if she did it."