This Preacher Gives Preachers a Bad Name

 

You've heard, right? Rev. Mark Harris is attempting a political resurrection from the grave he put himself in during the elections of 2018. 

You remember. 

Harris, pastor of a Southern Baptist megachurch in Charlotte and a leader of the 2012 evangelistic push to punish LGBTQ people for being LGBTQ, had beaten incumbent Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger in the 2018 primary, then ran against Democratic Marine golden boy Dan McCready (not all bright visions come to pass). Harris appeared to win over McCready by 900 votes. That's when the world got to know Leslie McCrae Dowless, a character out of the novel about NC politics that Damon Runyon never wrote.

By the end of November 2018, Joe Bruno, a reporter for WSOC, first mentioned the name Leslie McCrae ("McCrae") Dowless, and began to find a history of allegations of ballot fraud going back years. McRae Dowless, a gun for hire, a Democrat when they had power and then officially a Republican after they took over. An opportunist with certain skills, which turned out to be outright forgery and fabrication of bogus absentee ballots (which -- let's be fair -- may never actually have come close to turning an election but nevertheless tainted the one sufficiently in 2018 to end Mark Harris's political career, at least until now). Dowless faced criminal charges. Somehow, Harris skated. The Wake County D.A. said there wasn't enough evidence. But the State Board of Elections (SBOE) refused to certify Harris's election based on provable fraud, and then voted unanimously (including the two Republican members) to invalidate the 2018 election and call for a new election in 2019 (which Dan McCready lost again, this time to that horse's patoot Dan Bishop). All of which culminated in an escalation of revelation, first his denial that he knew anything about Dowless's activities (hardly credible that this preacherman didn't perceive exactly who McCrae Dowless was). But from denial, he was soon sobbing in public at the SBOE inquest while his son testified against him, said he himself had warned his father about the apparent corruption of Dowless. Harris ended his testimony abruptly, withdrawing his candidacy and conceding that a new election was called for, considering the evidence.

That was 2018. Now, in yet another election year, Harris is back as a striving Christian warrior trying to save America -- or at least the 8th District of NC -- and denying that any of 2018 ever happened. He now says he was the victim of a manufactured ballot crisis, that Democratic officials conspired against him to "steal" his election. Is the Trump shtick of God's own martyred hero going to suffice for Harris's comeback? Dunno. Time will tell. Someday soon I might get around to profiling Harris's primary opponents, and how they're treating him.

Tim Funk published a revealing profile on The Assembly's website about Harris's current plan to make his comeback in March's primary against several other Republican contenders. Well worth signing up for The Assembly. 

Who Got the NCGA Office That Rep. Ray Russell Was Evicted From?

That would be Rep. Jake Johnson, the newest (and now youngest) member of the NC House, appointed at the end of July to finish out the term of Rep. Cody Henson (previously the youngest member). Henson resigned his seat after admitting in court to cyber-stalking his estranged wife.

Jake Johnson is a pet of the Republican establishment, and we can see why. He's a rare bird, a talented millenial who's all in for the conservative brand. Johnson checks all the boxes: acidly pro-life, pugnaciously pro-NRA, and piously pro-family.

He's also politically accomplished: Ran for county commish of Polk County at the age of 19, lost but came back in two years to run again and win (highest vote-getter among commish candidates). It wasn't long before his fellow commissioners voted him chairman of the board, making him officially in Republican circles A Force To Be Reckoned With. He was the obvious choice to replace the other conservative millenial, the out of control Cody Henson, in the NC House -- that cow palace on Jones Street in Raleigh where the newest Republican wunderkind was going to need an office, which -- turned out -- was just coincidentally already occupied by Rep. Ray Russell, who also just coincidentally needed punishment for being a too uppity freshman legislator.

Jake Johnson claimed that he went to college (the year after he lost that first race for co commish) to get a degree in business administration but that Barack Obama in the White House was the straw that broke his business back. He switched to political science out of revenge for Obama and became an avowed partisan warrior against what America was becoming under a president who might have been -- probably was -- born in Kenya. I found on-line where he was scheduled to speak to the Asheville Tea Party back last January on the "steps we are going to have to take to get younger people into conservative politics." (I wish I'd heard that rap!)

Here's the passage in Johnson's biography that's almost forgotten: He says he served as "field director" for the successful congressional campaign of Mark Harris. That would be the Reverend Mark Harris, whose winning campaign against Democrat Dan McCready in November of 2018 was called back to be redone because of massive ballot fraud committed -- wait for it -- in the field operation.

Question: Did Jake Johnson know McCrae Dowless? Did he as Field Director know what McCrae Dowless was up to? And does his experience on the Mark Harris campaign still deserve prominent mention in his resume?

US DOJ Convenes Federal Grand Jury To Look Into NC-9 Ballot Fraud

If this is Robert Higdon's investigation, there's no explicit word about that in early news reports. The grand jury has been empaneled by the US Department of Justice in DC, but they're subpoenaing all the major players including McCrae Dowless, the Mark Harris campaign, and the NC State Board of Investigations.

UPDATE

Robert J. Higdon Jr.

Subpoenas are coming from the Public Integrity Section of the US Department of Justice. The federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert Higdon, remains silent and inactive on the matter of Republican ballot stealing. The Washington Post includes these paragraphs:

State election officials first referred evidence of ballot fraud in the 9th District to the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina in January 2017, nearly two years before allegations roiled Harris’s race against Democrat Dan McCready last fall. Frustrated state investigators said that they saw little evidence that prosecutors were pursuing the case.

A spokesman for the office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the subpoenas were sought by the Justice Department in Washington and not the U.S. attorney in Raleigh, Robert J. Higdon Jr.

Complicating matters is the fact that one of Harris’s sons, John, is an assistant U.S. attorney in Higdon’s office.

John Harris did the right thing in testifying honestly about his warnings to his father about McCrae Dowless. John Harris's boss Robert Higdon doesn't appear interested in justice or the rule of law in this case.

McGruff, The Crime-Fighting Dog, Is Lying on the Porch

Robert ("Bobby") Higdon

Leslie McCrae Dowless was indicted and arrested yesterday in the ballot fraud case in the NC-9. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman is bringing the charges.

Meanwhile, where is the US Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, who ought to take an interest in blatant fraud employed to corrupt a federal election?

Robert Higdon Jr., the federal prosecutor for eastern North Carolina, does not appear to be investigating the 9th District case. Higdon has instead prosecuted cases of noncitizen voting, producing minimal penalties. President Trump and other Republicans have portrayed noncitizen voting as a widespread phenomenon, although there is little evidence to support their claim.

Why would Trump's man in the prosecutor's office want to look into actual election crimes that benefitted a Republican when there are so many suspicious-looking brown people he can single out?

NOTE: Rev. Mark Harris's son John, whose testimony last week completely sunk the Harris campaign's boat, actually works as an assistant attorney in Higdon's office. And Rev. Harris himself is not out of D.A. Freeman's line of fire:

More charges are likely, Freeman said. She said her office’s “very large-scope” investigation will examine “who was aware of and helped finance these fraudulent absentee ballot activities” — a sign of potential legal peril for Harris, who hired Dowless. She also plans to determine whether anyone else besides Dowless allegedly tried to obstruct either the criminal or state board investigations.

Another Sign of the Times

Lisa Britt yesterday,
photographed by Juli Leonard
Raleigh News and Observer

“As long as we all stick together we’ll all be fine, because they don’t have anything on us.”

--What Leslie McCrae Dowless allegedly told his team of women absentee-ballot harvesters in Bladen County, his paid workers who were under active investigation at the time, at a meeting he called at his house, according to testimony by Lisa Britt, one of Dowless's ballot-harvesters who also happens to be his step-daughter.

There are moments in human history when someone utters words that bam! identify a disturbance in The Force, a moment of inutterable crisis. I'm not talking the personal crisis engulfing McCrae Dowless right now. I'm talking cultural crisis, national crisis. I'm talking a moment in human history. Ours -- so perfectly expressed by McCrae Dowless -- is the moment we totally know we're fucked because we can't trust our leader. “As long as we all stick together…" will soon and inevitably become "every man/woman for him/herself." "Because they don't have anything on us" is the rock bottom of our moral vacuum. "What's in it for me?" and "what can I get away with?" ends you here, at the tomb of civic faith. 

"For the love of money is the root of all evils." Personal aggrandisement really is the original sin of our Age (and of many ages), but even cherished step-daughters can eventually pull away.

Some Highlights From Yesterday's Hearing

In the hearing into the contested congressional race in the NC-9, the focus fell heavily on Leslie McCrae Dowless, the man Reverend Mark Harris insisted be hired by his political consulting firm, Red Dome, to deliver the absentee vote for him. Deliver Dowlass did.

Grateful to ProgressNC for bulleting these key points:

Dowless employee Lisa Britt went into extensive detail about the mechanics of McCrae Dowless’s vote theft operation, describing how she filled out incomplete absentee ballots in support of Republicans, falsified witness signatures, and gave unsealed ballots to Dowless -- all of which is illegal. 

Britt also provided evidence that Dowless committed obstruction of justice and witness-tampering by asking Britt and other potential witnesses to falsely claim Dowless did nothing wrong. 

Britt testified that Dowless went to great lengths to knowingly conceal his illegal vote theft scheme by delivering ballots in small batches, mailing them from post offices near voters’ addresses, having witnesses falsely use the same date as the voter signed and using different ink colors for signatures. 

Britt also testified that Dowless encouraged her to commit voter fraud by voting despite being on probation for a felony. 

State Elections Director Kim Strach described evidence of a "coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme" as well as a coordinated attempt to tamper with witnesses by Dowless and potentially others. 

Strach said Dowless was paid over $130,000 by the Harris campaign and its consultant Red Dome. Britt testified that she heard Dowless and Red Dome founder Andy Yates discussing vote totals, indicating that Red Dome was aware of Dowless’s illegal tactics.
Strach said Yates has so far refused to speak with investigators, and that criminal investigations into the apparent vote theft scheme will continue after the hearing.

By the close of the hearing yesterday, it had become clear that Dowless, who was in the room all day, is refusing to testify without a grant of immunity, and his colorful attorney, Cynthia Adams Singletary, played Rudy Guiliani for the cameras, talking way too much in a way that didn't seem to help her client. Cameras like a talker.

The hearing continues this morning (in a few actual minutes). When it ends -- Gawd knows when -- the board will "vote to either certify the victory of Republican Mark Harris, call for a new election, or deadlock, which would throw the matter into limbo" (Brian Murphy et al.).

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226263575.html#storylink=cpy

What We've Learned So Far in the NC-9 Election Fraud Hearing

Explosive stuff. Here's the best summary from WSOC reporter Joe Bruno's Twitter feed.

The Run-Down on All Four NC Races To Be Settled Following a Public Hearing on January 11

The State Board of Elections has set a Raleigh hearing for 10 a.m. on January 11, 2019, to settle the following election results mainly in Bladen County (one notorious already, the others less so):

The proceedings affect the final certification of results in four contests in the 2018 general election:

(1) U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District;
(2) Seat 2 on the District Court in Judicial District 16B;
(3) Bladen County Commissioner District 3; and
(4) Bladen Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor

(1) Involves Rev. Mark Harris v. Dan McCready, featuring the peerless Leslie McCrae Dowless and a cast of panic-stricken extras and hundreds of possibly fraudulent absentee ballots.

(2) Judicial District 16B is in Robeson County. The judgeship there was an open seat. On election night November 6th, Republican Jack Moody Jr. led Democrat Vanessa Burton by 77 votes. Then the provisional ballots were opened, researched, and counted. Burton received 312 votes from those provisional ballots to 149 for Moody. A recount was ordered and conducted. Going into this hearing, Burton leads Moody 15,382 votes to his 15,315.

Burton is an assistant district attorney in Robeson. Moody works as a public defender.

“The [SBOE] did not certify the results of that District Court race, as the apparent margin of victory in that contest represented fewer votes than those under review by this agency as it investigates absentee voting irregularities in the 9th Congressional District,” Patrick Gannon, a state Elections Board spokesman, wrote in an email. “There is not a separate investigation into the District Court contest,” Gannon wrote. “However, the results of the congressional district investigation could have some bearing on that contest.”

(3) The Bladen County Commission District 3 contest was between incumbent Democrat Russell Priest and Republican challenger Wayne Edge. Priest edged Edge 2,401 to 2,167 votes. The SBOE ordered the Bladen BOE not to certify this race, presumably because the winning margin is "within the threshold of the contested ballots" in the Mark Harris-Dan McCready race.

(4) The Bladen Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor race is technically non-partisan (though we suspect that every man's child in Bladen knows the parties of the contestants). Charles Gillespie is leading Tim Gause by 572 votes. The race was not certified for the same reason as (3) above.

NOTE: The peerless Leslie McCrae Dowless is a Bladen Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor already -- serving now as vice chair -- having been elected in the (also tainted) 2016 general election.

Dead Man Walking?

Rev. Mark Harris, who putatively won the 9th Congressional District race on November 6th, is fast becoming an untouchable in North Carolina Republican circles, except maybe with the Christian right (already inured to unethical behavior by "the Lord's anointed"). It's not that unusual in the South for congregations to rally protectively around their pastors accused of hinkiness, but political parties can be brutally realistic.

Harris has been a virtual stone wall, or at least a stone statue, since the absentee ballot fraud scandal erupted in Bladen (and now in adjoining counties too). The first Harris campaign defense appeared to be "it was Red Dome Group that hired Dowless, not us." And "we had no idea what was going on." The Reverend Harris's Twitter feed went dead after December 1. A week later, with more and more reporting on the wrongdoing in Bladen County and on McCrae Dowless and his curious history, Harris finally posted a denial video on his Twitter account on December 7th. It's not on his website, and it hasn't gotten a lot of play.

He sez, "alleged irregularities." Word choice is always such an interesting thing. "Irregularities," not crimes. "Alleged" -- also mighty important as a concept, and "alleged irregularities" leads directly to "if" ... as in, "If there's sufficient evidence of enough irregularities that they could have conceivably changed the election outcome, well then, we'll agree to a re-do." (That hedge -- "enough irregularities" -- won't stop shit, Pastor. Another special election in the 9th now seems inevitable. Even Dallas Woodhouse agrees.)

And by the way, "I was absolutely unaware of any wrong doing." That's a direct quote.

Two things:

A. According to new reporting in the WashPost, Harris was absolutely and actively aware:

North Carolina congressional candidate Mark Harris (R) directed the hiring of a campaign aide now at the center of an election-fraud investigation, according to three individuals familiar with the campaign, despite warnings that the operative may have used questionable tactics to deliver votes. 

Harris sought out the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, after losing a 2016 election in which Dowless had helped one of Harris’s opponents win an overwhelming share of the mail-in vote in a key county.

B. Harris's "election" has become such a scandal, the NCGOP is trying to dump his ass. The elections law overhaul that passed through the General Assembly yesterday contains a special provision: If a new election is ordered in the CD-9, then there must also be a primary -- the full shebang, brethren and sistern! And what clearer message could the NCGOP send to Mark Harris? "We're gonna defenestrate you from the priory."

There's already talk about who will run in a Republican primary for the special election that's coming. Robert Pittenger, the incumbent Mark Harris defeated in the May 2018 primary (now also tainted by the scandal), is not saying "no." Pat McCrory's name has come up, but we thought he wanted to be governor again. According to Politico, "Matthew Ridenhour, considered a rising star in the local GOP, is weighing a challenge. The ex-Marine recently served as a Mecklenburg County commissioner but lost reelection last month." Some of the Republican members of the General Assembly who lost their seats in November might have been contenders, and might be anyway.

On the Democratic side, Dan McCready is getting ready for the re-mix. I like his chances.

GOP Virtue in the Age of Twitterman

Reverend Mark Harris’s first primary run in 2016 against incumbent Republican Representative Robert Pittenger failed, in part, because of his trouncing in absentee-by-mail voting. In a race where each of his rivals accrued at least 411 absentee-by-mail votes, Harris had just 195. He lost by 134 votes. That was before his campaign hired Leslie McCrae Dowless for the 2018 primary against Pittenger.

“I’m sure as he was planning his campaign this time, he probably calculated that he needed a strong grass-roots showing,” said Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, which supported the insurgent bids by Rev. Harris in both 2016 and 2018. “As far as I can tell, Mark definitely learned some things as he went through his first two campaigns, but he’s always been a good candidate as far as his appreciation for what’s right and what’s truthful and what’s virtuous.”

And all the people said, "Amen! And pass the collection plate."

Rev. Harris still ain't talking about election fraud.

Rounding Out the Cast for the Movie "Absence of Ballots; Or, Bladen Runner"

Completely forgot about three other key roles in our movie version of election fraud in the NC 9th Congressional District (see the rest of the cast in the last post down-column):

NC Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse needs an especially accomplished thespian to capture the arrogance underlaid by mounting panic. There's only one actor for it (though he's a little old) ... Al Pacino. He can suck all the oxygen out of any room, he can weld iron with his voice, and he can veer from snarling aggression to self-flagellating consternation in the same short scene. (The press conference Woodhouse gave immediately after the scandal broke was an amazing show of grating aggression aimed at both the State Board of Elections and the NC DemsParty, yet two days later he was admitting that he had to throw up he was so upset by what was becoming public about the activities of McCrae Dowless (Steve Buscemi).) Pacino can play a bully, including one who gets tapped in the forehead and falls to vomiting. First draft of the movie features Woodhouse infrequently -- a side character -- but the finished plot may take a third-act twist that will fully engage the talents of Mr. Pacino.

Red Dome Group founder Andy Yates, the man who hired McCrae Dowless and who became hard to get hold of as this scandal unfolded. He appears on his company website as a chuckling hobbit -- here's a photo of the real Mr. Yates. That infectious good humor  may be and probably is a useful mask for a calculating horse-trader. The real Andy Yates has had a paid hand in many campaigns as a Republican consultant/operative, and he appears to be successful. His biggest contract ever was with the Mark Harris (Bruce Greenwood) campaign this year (some $500,00 counting the May primary, which included money to hire the very talented McCrae Dowless (Steve Buscemi). Whattayathink? Kevin James ("Paul Blart, Mall Cop") for this part? He's a professional actor. He might well play both jolly fatboy and sly schemer simultaneously. Should we give him a chance at a serious role with a potentially deep dark side? (The Secretary of State's Office administratively dissolved the Red Dome’s incorporation as of August 2017 for failure to file required annual reports. Yates himself bought $2,000 in "sponsorship advertising" at the Annual Leadership luncheon put on by the nonprofit NC Free Enterprise Foundation (NCFEF). Red Dome Group failed to show up for the luncheon on December 5th, and NCFEF director Jonathan Kappler said he didn't expect he'd ever see the money. Red Dome's world appears to be collapsing. Carolyn Justice, who was listed on the website as Red Dome's "lead consultant," told the Charlotte Observer that she had no idea who McCrae Dowless was "because I did not work on the Harris campaign." Her name and photograph has now disappeared from the Red Dome website. The only thing Yates has said to the press about the whole election fraud scandal: "I had no idea what McCrae Dowless was doing for his money."

NC State Board of Elections Chair Joshua Malcolm. I really can't see anybody in this part but Sir Ben Kingsley. Smart, relentless, calculating in his own right, he's the character that blew up the certification of Mark Harris in the first place and launched the investigation that may yet end with a brand-new election (including primary). He can be tough. He knows the law. He knows the ever-loving history of Bladen County, and he's already acquainted with Mr. Dowless (Steve Buscemi). He's playing chess all the time. He has a low and reassuring voice, but he can cut to the quick like a striking mamba. Beware his formal politeness if you're a character in his cross-hairs. He also likes to deal. This essential character part in our movie will grow, especially in the inevitable climactic hearing by the SBOE either to certify Mark Harris or hold a new election. Think of Sir Ben Kingsley presiding at that hearing.

"Absence of Ballots" Or "Bladen Runner"

Gerry Cohen, Nan Fulcher, and probably others have been pitching movie titles for the inevitable and longed-for filming of the (lightly fictionalized) NC9 absentee ballot scandal. I'm going a step further (because I'm semi-snowed-in and fighting boredom) with some prospective casting.

For the pivotal role of Leslie McCrae Dowless, I can't see anyone else but Steve Buscemi. Buscemi can communicate intimidation and toxic disdain like no other actor, and he rarely gets the lead in any movie he's in. He needs this break. He can play strong and he can play weak, and I believe we'll need that kind of range for the Dowless part.

The key part of Reverend Mark Harris needs an actor with enough corruptible unctuousness to be convincing as pastor to his flock while succumbing to the temptation to cheat. First, I thought (naturally!) of Reverend Lovejoy on The Simpsons, but I'm afraid he wouldn't have the range to do the harder scenes of political trimming. The scene where Harris agrees to the hiring of Steve Buscemi for his dirty work might be too much for a mere cartoon. Who could play both calculating and pious? Maybe Bruce Greenwood, one of the most under-appreciated character actors working in films.

Young reporter Joe Bruno, who is really the lead, the hero, the dust buster. Both callow and relentless, a surprising bulldog for the truth. He's tall and lanky and might seem at first to be tissue-thin, but he's got sinew. I have to go with Zach Woods, best known right now probably for "Silicon Valley." He's been mainly cast in nebbishy comic parts, but I think he needs a chance to strut his stuff. He could play those scenes where he surprises himself at how enterprising he can be at getting the story. He's almost embarrassed by his own success.

Killer angel from the state Board of Elections, Kim Strach. There's no one else for this part but Parker Posey, who can play fashion plate with an iron spine better than anyone. She can smile and push the knife in simultaneously. At the moment this part is mighty thin but will grow in importance and gravitas as the investigation reaches a boil.

The almost forgotten victim of all the corruption, Dan McCready, has been the hardest part to cast. Both boy scout and father of three. Both scrubbed innocence and brave Marine. I briefly considered Michael Cera, who can play innocent, but you'd never buy him as a Marine (plus his career appears to have moved into eclipse). I finally decided on Ansel Elgort, of "Baby Driver" fame, who has the right smile for it and who you could imagine toting a rifle.

The Wild Life in Bladen County -- Soon To Be a Book, Or a Major Motion Picture?

More things that stagger the mind and begger the imagination in Bladen County (thanks to the reporting of Joe Bruno):

Jens Lutz.
WSOC

1. Jens Lutz, the vice chair of the Bladen County Board of Elections, suddenly resigned yesterday, holding a pat of butter in his mouth that refused to melt. He said his resignation had nothing whatsoever to do with the absentee ballot fraud investigation. Then wrote in his resignation letter to Kim Strach at the state Board of Elections (SBOE) that it was the investigation, because his family was taking it hard and Democrats were yelling at him about "compromise." (There's the first narrative hole: What compromise?)

SIDE NOTE: The Bladen Director of Elections, Cynthia Shaw, had already packed up her office and left like smoke a week ago, opting to take extended sick leave until her retirement in January.)

2. In 2014 Jens Lutz formed a political consulting LLC ("Politico Management Services") with chief fraud suspect McCrae Dowless. Both were registered Democrats at the time. (Lutz had served a term as chair of the Bladen Co. Democrats.) He admitted that some of Politico Management Services' clients may be subjects of the on-going investigation, so he wouldn't name them.

3. Lutz told Joe Bruno of WSOC that he began to get suspicious about Dowless: “No one knew how he operated,” Lutz said. “He was a very secretive person. Nobody knew what he did. They knew he was productive .... I do everything by the book. Once I see something is not 100 percent, I would rather not be a part of it. There were several people aware of what I was doing and at the time McCrae was a Democrat, I was a Democrat." ("Aware of what I was doing" ... ? Another noticeable hole in Lutz's story.) But then Lutz told Bruno that everything he learned to make him a member of the local Board of Elections, he learned from Dowless. No kidding.

4. Asked if anyone on or in the Bladen County Board of Elections, especially office staff, had collaborated with Dowless on the absentee ballots, Lutz said he didn't know, but then began to talk about the absence of any security at the elections office (opening more speculation). The elections board shares space with Veterans Services, and that other staff of workers has complete access to the elections space all day and night. There's an interior scanning camera on the elections side that hasn't worked in 9 years, according to Lutz, and there's no alarm system. (Somebody needs to run for County Commission down there and make the Elections Office fiasco a major campaign issue.)

5. "Lutz says he notified the SBOE about suspicious activity after the board of elections received reports from people getting absentee ballots and not requesting them. 'That’s a pretty big red flag,' ” Lutz said. Then he offered a theory of the crime that seems based on insider info: “Let’s just say somebody from previous elections [has] a database that they kept, and they got copies of the absentee requests with vital information from the voter on it. Then this person can use that, if they are skilled enough, to copy people’s signatures."

NOTE: Absentee ballot requests are public. It's the copying of voter signatures that would be illegal.

6. Lutz has knowledge of the process: “If you are savvy at this operation, you would know the time it takes [for the absentee ballot to get] from the post office to their house,” Lutz said. “All of the sudden, you show up at a person’s house and say, ‘Hey, I am here for your absentee ballot.’ No. 1, it stuns them that you know it is there, and they are apt to give it to you. They may think you are an official.” That may be the most believable thing Lutz said in his interview: unsophisticated people who know little to nothing about legal processes for voting are apt to consent when the culture is all about social niceness and accommodation. “A lot of people don’t know the election laws, and they don’t understand the procedures of this,” Lutz said. “If they are presented with someone who knows more than they do, they seem to succumb to that person.”

Is That Gun Smoking?

Nate Silver is "coming in hot" (as Jesse Presnell just said on Facebook) on the absentee ballot scandal in the NC-9. Silver posted on Twitter this morning: "We're changing our rating on this race to Lean Prison."

Pastor Harris

Nate Silver was referencing new reporting by Joe Bruno that (again) links Rev. Mark Harris directly, personally, to suspected fraudster Leslie McCrae Dowless, reporting that 2017 Charlotte City Council candidate Pete Givens said he was personally introduced to Dowless by his pastor, Mark Harris: "Mark told me about this guy's process ... that he had a process." So Givens apparently hired Dowless to help him out in last year's Charlotte City Council race, paid him $800 in "consulting" fees, but Givens lost. "The Dowless process" maybe depends on a more rural landscape to work properly.

Harris's direct involvement with Dowless was first suggested way back three days ago in the Charlotte Observer -- an article I completely missed even though Billy Ball referred to it and reprinted it at the Progressive Pulse, and I should have noticed.

I believe that when the activity of McCrae Dowless first surfaced in the news, the Harris campaign wanted to imply that they had nothing to do with his hiring, that it was campaign consultants at the Red Dome Group that hired him. Perhaps so, but Harris knew him and recommended him and gave $400,000+ to the Red Dome Group to marshall their troops for the fight. Those troops included Dowlass, and Mark Harris was bound to know.

The Reverend is staying very quiet about all of this. If he's issued any public statement, I haven't seen it, and can't find it. Though I've searched. His Twitter feed contains nothing in the way of comment, though he did tweet on November 30 that "there is absolutely no public evidence that there are enough ballots in question to affect the outcome of this race," a position he's incidentally very wrong about. He's never mentioned Dowless nor the scandal that has erupted, though he's ever more central to it.

Dallas Woodhouse.
Photo Harry Lynch News and Observer

Subpoenas have begun to fly, one of them issued by the SBOE to the Mark Harris campaign. Also one to the Red Dome Group. The SBOE so far hasn't subpoenaed the NCGOP, but they should because Dallas Woodhouse at the NCGOP also hired Red Dome with "state money" that can't be legally spent on federal campaigns, so shouldn't we know if any of that NCGOP money went to subsidize "the Dowless process"? Especially as Dallas Woodhouse has a history of bragging about laundering money through his party treasurer.