Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. (January 3, 1956 – April 24, 2022) was an American political operative and convicted fraudster from the
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. Dowless' actions were at the center of a fraud investigation following the
2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election
The 2018 election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district was held on November 6, 2018, to elect a member for North Carolina's 9th congressional district to the United States House of Representatives.
Republican Mark Harris, an evangeli ...
. In February 2019, North Carolina's election commission determined that the doubts surrounding the integrity of the election were sufficiently serious that the election results should be invalidated and a new election held.
Early life
Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. was born on January 3, 1956, to Leslie McCrae Dowless Sr. and Monnie Margie Pait. He was the only child they had together, but had ten older half-siblings his parents had from other relationships. He was raised on a
Columbus County, North Carolina
Columbus County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina, on its southeastern border. Its county seat is Whiteville. The 2020 census showed a loss of 12.9% of the population from that of 2010. As of the 2020 census, the popula ...
, peanut farm until he was 10 years old, when his family moved to
Bladenboro.
Career
Insurance fraud conviction
In 1990, Dowless was convicted of felony
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
, and in 1992, he was convicted of felony
insurance fraud
Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. According to the ...
.
He was sentenced to two years in prison for the latter charge, and served six months.
[
]
Political involvement
Dowless began working in politics in 2006, focusing on get out the vote
"Get out the vote" or "getting out the vote" (GOTV) describes efforts aimed at increasing the voter turnout in elections. In countries that do not have or enforce compulsory voting, voter turnout can be low, sometimes even below a third of the ...
efforts. In 2006, he worked for Rex Gore's campaign for district attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
of Bladen County
Bladen County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the . Over the next couple of years, Dowless was paid thousands of dollars for getting out the vote efforts and, at times, for managing the campaigns of eastern North Carolina candidates Wesley Meredith, Al Leonard, Ken Waddell
Kenneth Neil Waddell (born September 11, 1953) is a former Democratic member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. Waddell represented the 46th district (including constituents in Columbus, Robeson, and Bladen counties) from 2013 until ...
, and William Brisson
William Dale Brisson (born August 18, 1946) is a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. He has represented the 22nd district, covering Bladen County and a portion of Sampson County, since 2007. Brisson lives in Blad ...
.
In 2010, Dowless worked for Harold Butch Pope's campaign for district attorney.[
Dowless himself was elected to the Bladen County Soil and Water Conservation Board in 2012. He was then re-elected in 2016.] Also in 2014, Dowless worked for Jim McVicker's campaign for sheriff. McVicker won by a small margin, and allegations were made about mishandled absentee ballot
An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online votin ...
s.
In the 2016 elections for U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
, Dowless worked for Todd Johnson
Todd Edward Johnson (born December 18, 1978) is an American former college and professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons during the 2000s. Johnson played college football for the Un ...
in the Republican Party primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
. Johnson finished third behind incumbent
The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...
Robert Pittenger
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
and Mark Harris. After the election, Dowless filed a complaint with the North Carolina Board of Elections suggesting that Johnson's opponents had committed fraud with absentee ballots. In turn, two voters filed complaints of voter fraud against Dowless.[
]
2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election
After noticing that Todd Johnson had won the absentee vote in Bladen County in 2016, Mark Harris had a consulting company, Red Dome Group (Lead Partner Andy Yates) hire Dowless to work on his 2018 campaign.[ Harris also introduced Dowless to a Republican candidate running for ]Charlotte City Council
The Charlotte City Council is the legislative body of the City of Charlotte and forms part of a council–manager system of government. The Council is made up of eleven members and the Mayor, all elected to two-year terms in odd-numbered years. ...
in 2017.
In the 2018 primary election, Harris defeated Pittenger. Doubts later surfaced regarding Dowless' role in absentee balloting in the primary; Harris received 437 of the 456 absentee votes cast in Bladen County.
In the general election against Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
nominee Dan McCready
Daniel Kent McCready (born July 18, 1983) is an American veteran, entrepreneur, civil rights activist, and former political candidate from Charlotte, North Carolina. He served in the United States Marine Corps, achieving the rank of captain.
M ...
, Harris was the unofficial winner by 905 votes. However, the North Carolina State Board of Elections
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) is an agency of the North Carolina state government charged with the administration of the elections process, as well as campaign finance, and lobbying disclosure and compliance. The State Board ...
refused to certify the results of the election. Dowless was accused of paying workers to illegally collect absentee ballots from voters[ and was considered a "person of interest" in the investigation over mishandled absentee ballots. On February 4, the newly seated state elections board set an evidentiary hearing to begin on February 18.
]
Ballot fraud
On the first day of the evidentiary hearing, state elections director Kim Strach said the evidence would show that "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated in the 2018 general election". Lisa Britt, the daughter of Dowless's ex-wife as well as one of his employees, said Dowless and his associates had collected ballots from voters. She then testified that the ballots were kept at Dowless' home or office for several days or longer, and that operatives would fill in votes on parts or all of some ballots to favor Republican candidates in the election.[ She also said they had forged some witness signatures and that they had followed the direction of Dowless to take steps to avoid detection, including controlling the color of the pens used for the witness signatures, signing a different person's name as a witness to avoid having the same person as witness to too many ballots, making sure to deliver no more than nine ballots in each visit to the post office, and making sure to use post offices near where the voters lived.][ Britt also said she had personally voted despite being on probation for a felony conviction and that she had taken advice from Dowless about how to do that.][ Dowless himself was present at the hearing but refused to testify without being granted immunity from prosecution.][
]
New election
On February 21, the Board of Elections unanimously voted to order a new election in the congressional race. The Board also ordered new elections in two other contests for local offices. On February 26, 2019, citing ill health, Harris declared that he would not compete in the new election.
Arrest
On February 27, 2019, Dowless was arrested after being indicted by a Wake County
Wake County is located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. In the 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's most-populous county. From July 2005 to July 2006, Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the U ...
grand jury. Dowless was charged with multiple counts related to illegal ballot handling and obstructing justice in the 2016 and 2018 elections. An additional four people who worked for him were also charged. In July, additional charges of perjury and solicitation to commit perjury were added in a superseding indictment.
Fraud conviction
On April 7, 2020, Dowless was indicted on federal charges of Social Security fraud. In the indictment, unsealed on April 21, prosecutors alleged that Dowless claimed disability and retirement benefits in 2017 and 2018, but failed to tell the Social Security Administration about over $132,000 in payments he received for working on the Harris campaign and one other campaign in the 2018 cycle.
In June 2021, Dowless pled guilty to two charges. He was convicted of government theft and defrauding the government. He was sentenced to six months in prison and fined more than $8500.
Death
Dowless died on April 24, 2022, at his daughter's home in Bladen County following a diagnosis with lung cancer. The legal charges against him were formally dropped by prosecutors upon his death. A funeral was held at Center Road Baptist Church on April 30 in Bladen County and he was subsequently buried. Journalists Michael Graff and Nick Ochsner wrote, "Dowless was a lot of things to a lot of people. To Democrats, he was despicable, a Republican who tried to undermine democracy. To Republicans, he was a low-level fall guy who proved how easy it was to undermine democracy. In his two-decade political career, Dowless had worked for candidates on both sides of the aisle, and in the end he was put out of both."
References
Works cited
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowless, McCrae
1956 births
2022 deaths
Deaths from lung cancer in North Carolina
People from Bladen County, North Carolina
American people convicted of fraud
Political campaign staff
North Carolina politicians convicted of crimes
North Carolina Democrats
North Carolina Republicans
American people convicted of perjury
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government