The nine-member board has twice declined to certify the results and will hold an evidentiary hearing this month due to “claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities related to absentee mail ballots,” according to Joshua Malcolm, the board’s vice chair. Dowless has denied any wrongdoing to The Charlotte Observer. Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com: 
 
 © 2019 Cox Media Group. This is a stunning admission in the #NC09 election controversy by ⁦@wsoctv⁩’s ⁦@JoeBrunoWSOC9⁩ on what one of the “harvesters” did with the absentee by mail ballots she picked up: #ncpol pic.twitter.com/NtcmJOVnpE — Michael Bitzer (@BowTiePolitics) December 3, 2018 
 
 Dowless is the Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor who appears to be at the center of the state investigation. “Nobody gave me a chance in the world to win District 2 in Charlotte,” Givens said. Dowless is suspected of committing absentee ballot voter fraud in the congressional race between republican Mark Harris and democrat Dan McCready for NC’s 9th district. “I was helping McCrae pick up ballots,” Eason said. “He never told me to do that, said ‘this is what you’ve got to do.’” 
 
 Asked if his campaign would have done that, Givens responded forcefully. “When I heard reports of what’s happened in Bladen County, that people were going back and picking these up, you don’t do that ... Eason said Leslie McCrae Dowless, Jr. paid her $75 to $100 a week to go around and pick up finished absentee ballots. James Singletary wasn’t home either and Lisa Britt doesn’t live at the address she said she did on the ballots.
– Election 2018 is not quite over yet: A House race in North Carolina remains uncalled amid some fishy business regarding absentee ballots. In the race, Republican Mark Harris is leading Democrat Dan McReady by just 905 votes, but the bipartisan state board of elections has declined to certify the results as it investigates. One possibility: The board could call for a new election. Another: House Democrats could refuse to seat Harris next year, if they think there's still enough doubt about his win. The details: The key figure: The controversy centers on a man named Leslie McCrae Dowless, an independent contractor who worked for the Harris campaign, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. In fact, he also worked for Harris in the candidate's narrow primary win. Dowless, who denies any wrongdoing, has prior convictions for felony perjury and insurance fraud. The first step: Dowless hired people to encourage voters, particularly low-income voters in Bladen County, to cast absentee ballots. "He gets workers to go get people to sign up on a sheet of paper for an absentee ballot," a man who describes himself as a former friend tells CNN. "Say you live in a Section 8 housing area, they will collect these requests. He says you don't have to leave your house, you can just vote at home." The problem: Dowless' crew allegedly picked up those absentee ballots from the voters, some of them still unsealed, and returned them to Dowless. One woman tells reporter Joe Bruno WSOC-TV that Dowless paid her up to $100 to collect and return ballots to him, and she has no idea what happened to them after that. Under state law, only the voters themselves or designated relatives are allowed to mail in their ballots, reports the Washington Post. The allegations: State investigators are looking into claims that the absentee ballots were tampered with or simply not turned in. Investigators have turned up numerous people, mostly minorities, whose absentee ballots were never turned in to be counted. Typically, these would be voters who support Democrats.