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As NC-9 Filing Begins, State Issues FAQ On Ongoing Investigation

Booking photo of Leslie McCrae Dowless. Dowless was at the center of a ballot fraud investigation by state elections officials who ordered a new election in the disputed North Carolina congressional race. (Wake City-County Bureau of Identification via AP)

Candidates have started lining up in the race for North Carolina's Ninth District Congressional seat after November's results were thrown out amid fraud accusations.

State officials have released thier response on six issues involved in the Ninth District do-over. One of them: why wasn't Democrat Dan McCready named the winner after a campaign operative for his opponent, Republican Mark Harris, was tied to irregularities in absentee-ballot collections?

Elections officials say the results of the election were so tainted that it's unclear who would have won had it been a fair election. The bipartisan state board voted unanimously for a new election.

As for prosecutions, state officials say several people have already been indicted in connection with alleged fraudulent activities in the last two elections. Most notably, McCrae Dowless, the Harris operative at the center of the investigation.

And it's not over. The board is continuing to gather and review evidence for the Wake County District Attorney's Office, which could lead to additional charges.

The candidate filing period lasts only this week, with a primary scheduled for May 10.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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