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NC Political Operative Faces New Felony Charges

March 2019 booking photo of Leslie McCae Dowless. (Wake City-County Bureau of Identification via AP)

A ballot fraud investigation has produced new felony charges against the political operative at the center of a disputed North Carolina congressional election.

Leslie McCrae Dowless was indicted on new charges related to the 2018 general election including perjury, obstruction of justice and absentee ballot possession. 

He and others were charged earlier this year with counts related to the 2016 general election and 2018 primary.

The new indictment alleges Dowless directed people to collect absentee ballots that hadn't been properly completed by voters. Dowless had worked for Mark Harris, a GOP congressional candidate.

The scandal resulted in state officials ordering a new 9th District election to be held this fall. Harris chose not to run again. His former opponent, Democrat Dan McCready, faces Republican Dan Bishop.

Dowless's defense attorney didn't immediately return a message Tuesday.

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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