Alan Blinder

The ruling, an early step in a legal confrontation that critics of abortion orchestrated to try to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, ensured that abortion services would remain available in the state, at least for now.

The Alabama law would have made it a felony for doctors to provide abortions in almost all circumstances, and it threatened them with up to 99 years in prison. The law did not include any exceptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest, allowing the procedure only when a woman’s health was at “serious” risk.

The preliminary injunction, which was issued by Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court in Middle Alabama, will remain in effect until the “court resolves the case in full.”

This article originally appeared in

Alabama Abortion Ban Is Blocked by a Federal Judge

A federal judge blocked Alabama’s near-total ban on abortions on Tuesday, stopping the legislation from taking effect next month.

In an indictment announced Tuesday, the operative, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., was accused of obstruction of justice and illegal possession of an absentee ballot, among other charges. Seven other people were also indicted in connection with the election fraud inquiry, but prosecutors said the charges against one person were inadvertent and would be dismissed.

In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that Dowless directed others in the criminal mishandling of absentee ballots and that “spoiled absentee ballots were counted.” Dowless’ crimes, the indictment said, “served to undermine the integrity of the absentee ballot process and the public’s confidence in the outcome of the electoral process.”

“This offense was done with deceit and intent to defraud and against the peace and dignity of the state,” said the indictment, which a grand jury in Wake County returned Tuesday.

Through his lawyer, Dowless, who worked during the 2018 campaign for Mark Harris, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, has denied wrongdoing, and a woman who answered the phone at his lawyer’s office Tuesday afternoon declined to comment.

Harris, who eventually gave up his bid to be elected to Congress, has also denied any role in any election fraud.

But state elections regulators and investigators concluded that Dowless, who had worked for Democratic and Republican politicians alike over the years, had overseen a network of people who collected absentee ballots — a violation of North Carolina law — and sometimes completed them while he was a contractor for Harris’ campaign.

Although officials never proved that Dowless’ group touched enough ballots in and around Bladen County to account for the entirety of Harris’ 905-vote edge, the State Board of Elections decided in February to order a new vote. At the time, the chairman of the elections board, Robert Cordle, cited “the corruption, the absolute mess with the absentee ballots” and described the November election as “tainted.”

Voters in the district, which includes part of Charlotte, will pick a new congressman in September. Harris is not a candidate, but last year’s Democratic candidate, Dan McCready, is running for the seat against Dan Bishop, who became the Republican nominee in May.

Dowless was charged in February with a series of felonies connected to the general election in 2016 and the primary balloting in 2018. In both elections, according to indictments that were filed in Wake County, Dowless’ conduct “served to undermine the integrity of the absentee ballot process and the public’s confidence in the outcome of the electoral process.”

Until now, though, Dowless had not been charged in connection with the 2018 general election. But his prosecution was widely expected as federal and state investigators spent months gathering evidence.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state Board of Elections, said in a statement Tuesday that the misconduct linked to Dowless had “effectively disenfranchised voters” in the 9th District.

“North Carolina voters should be confident that state officials will continue to be vigilant and pursue any individuals or organizations that attempt to undermine our elections,” she said. “Democracy is best served by holding those who attempt to thwart it accountable.”

In an interview in February, Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County district attorney, said she and other investigators had been waiting for the elections board to conclude its work before they turned their focus to last year’s general election.

“What has been challenging about this case and this investigation is that, as has been widely reported, certain activity has gone on for years,” Freeman, who began investigating Dowless’ activities in Bladen County after the local prosecutor recused himself, said in her suite of offices in Raleigh, the North Carolina capital. “The more interviews you do, the more interviews you have to do.”

The 9th District has been without representation since January, when the term of Rep. Robert M. Pittenger expired. Harris narrowly defeated Pittenger in a Republican primary in May 2018.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/us/mccrae-dowless-indictment.html" id="c8de710a-4ecd-37ea-a949-560265fecb0e">The New York Times</a>.

Election Fraud in North Carolina Leads to New Charges for Republican Operative

A Republican operative in North Carolina has been charged in connection with a voter-turnout effort that investigators said was intended to manipulate the results of a now-overturned general election for Congress last year.

The Republican-controlled Senate, faced with procedural disputes and intraparty debate over details of the measure, abruptly adjourned until Tuesday. Chaos spilled into public view on the Senate floor, but it neither definitively advanced nor sank the proposal that is the nation’s most far-reaching effort to curb abortion this year.

The measure would effectively ban most abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalize the procedure for doctors, who could be charged with a felony and face up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion unless a woman’s health was at “serious” risk. On Thursday, in a maneuver that helped set off a chorus of shouts and screams on the Senate floor, some Republicans sought to abandon provisions that would have allowed exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape or incest.

The House has already passed a measure without such exceptions, and a Senate committee added them Wednesday, stirring anger from some who thought they watered down the effort to ban abortion as broadly as possible and to force a new look at Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion up to the point when a fetus is viable outside the womb, usually about 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Although the Senate removed the exceptions Thursday, the provision could be restored before a final vote.

In the end, with the Alabama chamber in turmoil and even senior lawmakers flabbergasted, Thursday served as a preview of the debate that will play out once the bill returns to the Senate floor as soon as next week.

“If we want to talk about privacy, I would want to talk about the right of privacy of that unborn child,” said state Sen. Clyde Chambliss, a Republican from the Montgomery area. “That child has a right to develop and be delivered without its privacy being invaded, invaded by forceps and scalpels. That’s what this bill is about today.”

Democrats have complained that the measure would nearly eliminate abortion rights in Alabama, and they have argued that lawmakers should spend more time on the state’s most pressing issues, not national cultural battles. But they have also conceded that the bill is very likely to pass the Legislature.

“We will probably spend more money on legal fees on this particular case than it takes for us to be able to bring healthy babies into the world,” Sen. Bobby Singleton, the top Democrat in the chamber, said Thursday. “But we’re willing to do legislation for grandstanding versus the ability to look at the human factor and allow a woman to have her own choice.”

The legislation has moved through Montgomery, the Alabama capital, just as opponents of legal abortion in the South and beyond have been encouraged and emboldened by the realignment of the Supreme Court with the arrival of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This year, especially in the South and Midwest, state lawmakers have pursued a range of proposals to limit abortions, including so-called heartbeat bills that essentially ban abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.

Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has not committed to signing the measure into law if it reaches her desk, but many state lawmakers expect her eventual support.

Opponents of the legislation have vowed to sue to block the measure if it becomes law. They said that they would argue that Alabama would have unlawfully restricted access to abortion, a right that the courts have repeatedly reaffirmed since Roe.

“Passing bills that they know will be struck down in federal court are a waste of millions of taxpayer dollars that could be going to address the urgent needs in our communities,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama said in a statement. “Ignoring those needs in favor of scoring political points is an irresponsible use of their power and privilege.”

In the statement, issued before the bill’s turbulent appearance on the Senate floor, the ACLU warned, “If the full Senate and governor insist on passing this bill, they will see us in court.”

Although the bill’s supporters expect it to be blocked in at least one lower court, they hope that the Supreme Court will ultimately seize on the legal battle to reconsider its essential holding in Roe.

“Our position is just simply that the unborn child is a person, and the bill goes directly to that,” said state Rep. Rich Wingo, a Republican who supported the legislation. “Courts can do — and have done — many things good and bad, but we would hope and pray that they would go and that they would overturn Roe.”

Alabama, a conservative state where Republicans dominate politics and where the number of abortion clinics has fallen over the years, has long sought to limit abortion access. Last year, voters supported an amendment to the Alabama Constitution that declared that the “public policy of this state is to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.”

In the past, lawmakers set a 48-hour waiting period for abortions; mandated that women receive counseling before undergoing procedures; and required minors to receive consent for an abortion from a parent or legal guardian.

It was not immediately clear when the Senate would resume its consideration of the measure and how Republicans would settle the matter of rape and incest exceptions, which some of the Republican Party’s leading figures support.

Democrats, though, seemed to sense an opportunity to depict at least some Senate Republicans as reckless with their power over the chamber’s business.

“I know you all are for this bill, and I know this bill is going to pass,” Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, a Democrat and one of the few women in the Alabama Legislature, told Republicans on the floor Thursday. “You all are going to get your way, but at least treat us fairly and do it the right way.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/alabama-abortion-ban.html" id="79736523-5da1-3e37-adc1-16c7e923879c">The New York Times</a>.

Amid Chaos, Alabama Lawmakers Delay Vote on Far-Reaching Abortion Ban

The Alabama Senate on Thursday postponed debate on a proposal to outlaw most abortions in the state, delaying the measure that is intended to serve as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court’s holding that a woman has a constitutional right to end a pregnancy.

The measure would effectively ban most abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalize the procedure for doctors, who could face up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion unless a woman’s health was at “serious” risk. On Thursday, in a maneuver that helped set off a chorus of shouts and screams on the Senate floor, some Republicans sought to abandon provisions that would have allowed exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape or incest.

Democrats have complained the measure would nearly eliminate abortion rights in Alabama, and they have argued that lawmakers should spend more time on the state’s most pressing issues, not national cultural battles. But they have conceded that the bill is very likely to pass the Legislature.

“You saw things that you wouldn’t believe,” Trump told reporters after he surveyed a neighborhood that was among the most gravely damaged during Sunday’s outbreak, which left at least 23 people dead and spawned a tornado with estimated winds of 170 mph.

Later, Trump traveled to Providence Baptist Church — the hub of a sprawling volunteer relief effort that has taken shape in east Alabama in recent days. Local officials said he was expected to also meet with relatives of those killed and emergency workers.

A few hundred people lined a two-lane county highway near the church, hoping for a glimpse of Trump from the roadside grass or from the cemetery across the street. When his motorcade arrived, it passed 23 white crosses, one for each of the storm’s victims. Just before Trump left the church, he and the first lady, Melania Trump, approached the display. The couple walked the row of crosses, pausing at each one.

The president’s trip came three days after he approved a disaster declaration for Lee County, where residents are eligible for grants for temporary housing and home repairs and loans for uninsured property. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has already approved more than $42,000 in assistance in the county. The agency said that five applications had been approved and that more were being processed.

FEMA — and U.S. presidents — have long grappled with the aftermath of severe storms in the South, where hundreds of deaths in the past decade alone have been attributed to tornadoes. Trump is the fourth consecutive president, at least, to visit Alabama to survey tornado damage.

But as Trump and the Beauregard community mourned the dead, the state was preparing for the possibility of more severe weather. Although forecasters have gradually become more concerned about dangerous weather in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee, experts said that Alabama remained in some jeopardy.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/trump-alabama.html" id="cc933867-7ae0-3e4f-a551-cb8c0d47a0e9">The New York Times</a>.

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — President Donald Trump traveled Friday to tornado-battered Alabama, where he heralded the federal response and tried to comfort a grieving, stunned community.

Trump Surveys Damage in Alabama

“While the setup through the weekend is not as potent as what we saw last weekend, we still have to be vigilant with severe storms as we are now in our spring severe weather season in Alabama,” Scott Martin, an Alabama meteorologist, wrote in an analysis Friday. “If you strictly rely on outdoor sirens for your way of receiving warnings, you don’t have much hope.”

Trump Surveys Tornado Damage in Alabama

“We have another storm system, very powerful, that will begin entering the state” on Saturday, Kevin Laws, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said at a news conference in the county where 23 people were killed Sunday. “Most of the entire state’s going to be under a significant risk.”

The Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center issued a separate forecast that showed much of the South, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and the Carolinas, in at least some jeopardy over the weekend. Meteorologists, who predicted Sunday’s outbreak with striking precision, are expected to refine their forecast in the coming days.

Laws said there was a possibility that the eastern half of Alabama, which includes the communities that were hit hardest last weekend, would ultimately face “somewhat more of a minimal risk.”

The Weather Service’s early warnings came on the morning that local authorities announced that no one remained missing in the aftermath of Sunday’s outbreak, which spawned a series of tornadoes, including one that traveled for about 70 miles.

“We are now confident that we have accounted for all of the individuals that we had unaccounted for,” said Sheriff Jay Jones of Lee County, where all of the deaths occurred.

The county coroner, Bill Harris, said four people remained in intensive care units Wednesday morning.

President Donald Trump, who approved a federal disaster declaration for Lee County on Tuesday, is expected to visit the region Friday to survey the damage. And Gov. Kay Ivey opened her State of the State address Tuesday night with a tribute to the victims.

Residents said repeatedly this week they had already begun to turn their attention toward rebuilding efforts that are likely to stretch for months, at least.

“We don’t know why it happened,” said Richard Brown Sr., principal of Beauregard High School, where he has worked since 1971. “It’s just part of life. There are always some ups and downs, and you have to take the good with the bad, and the good Lord is in charge.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/alabama-storm-tornado.html" id="77c59d7f-a68c-36ad-a7e4-17ba511be59f">The New York Times</a>.

New Storm Threat in Alabama as Search for Tornado Missing Ends

BEAUREGARD, Ala. — Days after ferocious tornadoes killed almost two dozen people and devastated block after block of eastern Alabama, officials warned Wednesday that the state should brace for the possibility of more trouble this weekend.

The consequences of the tornado came into greater focus Wednesday, as Alabama Power estimated that 116 homes were so crippled that they could not receive electrical service. But officials like Harris said they believed the death toll from the tornado, the deadliest in the United States since 2013, was unlikely to rise.

“We are still in a standby mode,” he said, “just on the outside chance that they find somebody, which is not likely.”

Trump’s visit to the area Friday is certain to call attention to the region’s plight, and residents said repeatedly this week they had already begun to turn their attention toward rebuilding efforts that are likely to stretch for months, at least.

The state elections board, which concluded last month that fraud had tainted November’s voting for the seat, ruled Monday that a new open primary would be held in the district on May 14 and a new general election on Sept. 10.

The off-year race, likely to be competitive, expensive and closely scrutinized for signs of new misconduct, drew a handful of candidates even before the board set the schedule. The filing period for candidates begins next week.

There is scarce precedent for a start-to-finish redo of a congressional election, and officials in both parties are bracing for a season of sharp-edged advertisements and high-profile campaign stops, after a scandal that left North Carolina voters shaken.

Republicans, frustrated and embarrassed by how the fleeting victory of Mark Harris in November unraveled after the revelation that his campaign financed an illicit voter-turnout effort, are expected to mount an aggressive attempt to retain the seat, which the party has held since 1963.

And Democrats, energized by the scandal that subsumed Harris and their sooner-than-expected shot at the seat, are similarly poised for a vigorous campaign. Leading Democrats have already begun to coalesce behind Dan McCready, who trailed Harris by 905 votes after last fall’s balloting.

But there will not be a rematch between the two men, at least this time. Harris, who has denied any knowledge of the misconduct that his campaign financed, announced last Tuesday that he would not run in the new election. The next day, state authorities arrested L. McCrae Dowless Jr., the Harris campaign contractor who oversaw the illicit effort, after his indictment for obstruction of justice and other charges.

Harris, an evangelical pastor from Charlotte, has endorsed Stony Rushing, a commissioner from Union County, for the Republican nomination in the 9th, which includes part of Charlotte and stretches eastward, encompassing all or parts of Fayetteville, Lumberton, Monroe and Rockingham.

The campaign begins at a moment when North Carolina voters are signaling worries about the way elections are conducted in the state.

In an Elon University poll of North Carolina registered voters, just more than half of respondents reported that they thought election fraud was a “major problem” in the state. According to the study, which the university released Friday, about 60 percent of voters said they were “somewhat confident” that future elections would be fair.

Although the poll suggested that Democratic respondents were slightly more anxious about the potential for fraud than Republicans, the survey, which had a margin of sampling error of 3.4 percent, reflected bipartisan concerns in the wake of the 9th District’s scandal.

“Now, months out from the tainted 9th District election, North Carolina voters are broadly skeptical of elections in the state,” Jason Husser, an associate professor of political science at the university and director of the poll, wrote in a summary that accompanied the survey’s release. “A majority of the electorate has clear concerns about the fairness of future elections and the extent of fraud.”

State election officials have already said they would send staff members to Bladen and Robeson counties — the epicenters of the scandal — “to monitor and assist with the elections process.”

The newly elected House, which convened in January without a representative from the 9th District, has two other vacancies. On May 21, Pennsylvania voters in the 12th District will pick a replacement for former Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican who resigned in January.

And North Carolina’s 3rd District will hold a special election on July 9 or Sept. 10, depending on whether a primary runoff is required, to fill the seat of Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. Jones, a Republican who represented much of the state’s Atlantic coast, died in February.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/north-carolina-special-election-house-ninth.html" id="6ce8e56a-1937-3717-a105-4dd9af06a499">The New York Times</a>.

North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District will remain without representation in the House until at least September.

North Carolina Sets New Date for Redo Election in Congressional House Race

The campaign contractor, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., was among five people charged in Wake County, North Carolina, in connection with misconduct related to absentee ballots. The prosecutions were a vigorous legal backlash against a rare instance of election fraud and cast a still-darkening shadow over North Carolina, where state regulators recently ordered a new election in the 9th Congressional District after finding that Dowless had orchestrated an illicit scheme for Mark Harris, the Republican candidate.

“These indictments should serve as a stern warning to anyone trying to defraud elections in North Carolina,” Kim Strach, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a statement.

The charges that were unsealed on Wednesday were not tied to the 2018 general election, which investigators are still examining and which Harris once appeared to have won by 905 votes. Instead, this week’s indictments were linked to an election in 2016, when Dowless worked for a different candidate, and the 2018 primary, when he was effectively on the Harris campaign’s payroll.

But the indictments describe many of the same activities that investigators believe played out last fall, when Harris was locked in a tight race with Dan McCready, the Democratic nominee. Dowless, for instance, was accused of directing his associates to harvest absentee ballots from voters and instructing workers to sign ballot envelopes as if they had been legitimate witnesses. North Carolina law typically forbids third parties from handling absentee ballots.

During parts of both the 2016 and 2018 elections, the indictments said, Dowless’ conduct “served to undermine the integrity of the absentee ballot process and the public’s confidence in the outcome of the electoral process.” According to the indictment, spoiled ballots were tabulated in both races, including the 2018 primary, when Harris defeated Rep. Robert M. Pittenger by 828 votes. In that contest, Harris won 437 of the 456 ballots cast through the mail in Bladen County, the hub of Dowless’ operation.

It was not clear on Wednesday how many ballots were compromised and counted during the primary.

Dowless’ lawyer did not respond to a message, and a woman who answered the phone at her office in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, declined to comment. Last week, after Dowless declined to testify during an evidentiary hearing before the state elections board, the lawyer, Cynthia Singletary, said, “I don’t think he’s done anything wrong.”

But to others who observed the proceedings in the state capital, where regulators heard days of testimony about Dowless’ work and reputation, he was all but certain to face prosecution — an outcome that Democrats and Republicans alike said seemed appropriate.

In an interview on Friday, the day after the elections board ordered a new vote, the prosecutor overseeing the criminal inquiry said she expected a grand jury to return its first charges within a month. On Tuesday, the grand jurors acted, but the indictments remained under seal until Dowless, 63, was arrested.

“What has been challenging about this case and this investigation is that, as has been widely reported, certain activity has gone on for years,” the prosecutor, Lorrin Freeman, said last week. “The more interviews you do, the more interviews you have to do.”

Freeman, who is the Wake County district attorney and began investigating Dowless’ activities in Bladen County after the local prosecutor recused himself, said on Wednesday that Dowless had been arrested in the morning and was taken to Raleigh for processing. Dowless’ secured bond was set at $30,000, and he was ordered to avoid contact with anyone who was identified in the indictments.

Four other people were also indicted and face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and of illegally possessing absentee ballots. One of the four was also accused of falsely signing the voter certification on an absentee ballot.

Prosecutors could eventually seek additional charges against Dowless or his associates, especially in connection with the 2018 general election. The federal authorities have not said whether they are investigating Dowless.

Dowless has some familiarity with the criminal justice system, and his record includes felony convictions for perjury and fraud. But his background did not keep him from working for Harris, as well as other Democratic and Republican politicians who were seeking office in southeastern North Carolina.

There, Dowless built a reputation as a savvy organizer of effective absentee ballot efforts that, at least sometimes, seemed to rely on criminal conduct and a network of workers with little legal knowledge but a need for quick cash. In 2017, just months after Dowless worked for one of Harris’ rivals during a campaign for Congress, Harris hired him for his 2018 House bid. In doing so, Harris ignored the misgivings of one of his sons, who memorialized his concerns in an email that became public last week.

“The key thing that I am fairly certain they do that is illegal is that they collected the completed absentee ballots and mail them all at once,” John Harris wrote to his father in 2017.

Mark Harris repeatedly denied that he knew of any wrongdoing by Dowless or others in his operation, which his campaign spent tens of thousands of dollars to underwrite. Indeed, he insisted that Dowless had explicitly assured him that his effort would involve nothing improper. But Harris, who appeared to mislead investigators during his testimony, ultimately decided last Thursday that he would support a new election.

State officials are expected to meet on Monday to set a schedule for the new election, which will include a primary and be conducted as if a member of Congress had died or resigned. McCready, last year’s Democratic candidate, said on Friday that he would enter the race. On Tuesday, Harris cited his health and announced that he would not be a candidate.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/mcrae-dowless-indicted.html" id="865d9cc4-7797-39ba-a679-467e7a8c16d5">The New York Times</a>.

North Carolina Operative Indicted Over Tainted Ballots in 2 Elections

The North Carolina political operative who oversaw a fraud-ridden voter-turnout effort on behalf of a Republican congressional candidate was arrested on Wednesday, a prosecutor said, after a grand jury accused him of a series of felonies.

The campaign contractor, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., was among five people charged in Wake County, North Carolina, in connection with misconduct related to absentee ballots. Dowless faces the gravest charges, including three counts of felonious obstruction of justice.

Although Dowless has come under scrutiny for his work for Mark Harris, last year’s Republican candidate for Congress in the 9th District, the charges that were unsealed Wednesday are not connected to the 2018 general election, which investigators are still examining. Instead, this week’s indictment was tied to the 2016 election, when Dowless worked for a different candidate, and the 2018 primary, when he worked for Harris.

But the indictment, which was made public six days after the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new contest in the 9th District, describes many of the same activities that investigators believe played out again last fall. In one section of the indictment, for instance, Dowless is accused of directing his associates to harvest absentee ballots from voters and instructing workers to sign ballot envelopes as if they had been legitimate witnesses. North Carolina law typically forbids third parties from handling those ballots.

In the wake of last week’s evidentiary hearing in Raleigh, in which state regulators heard days of testimony about Dowless’ work and reputation, it was all but certain that he would face prosecution. In an interview Friday, Lorrin Freeman, district attorney for Wake County, said she expected a grand jury to bring its first charges within a month.

On Tuesday, the grand jurors acted. Freeman, who began investigating Dowless’ activities in Bladen County after the local district attorney recused himself, said in an email Wednesday afternoon that Dowless had been arrested in the morning and that authorities were transporting him to Raleigh for processing.

Harris said Tuesday that he would not run in the new contest. His Democratic rival from last year, Dan McCready, entered the race Friday.

The North Carolina political operative who oversaw a fraud-ridden voter-turnout effort on behalf of a Republican congressional candidate was arrested Wednesday, a prosecutor said, after a grand jury’s secret indictment this week.

North Carolina Operative Indicted in Connection with Absentee Voter Fraud

In the months since Harris’ narrow apparent victory — by a 905-vote margin — began to draw attention and investigation, Dowless has been among the central figures of inquiry. He worked for Democratic and Republican candidates over the years and was elected to a low-level office himself in Bladen County, but his shadowy tactics and criminal convictions for perjury and fraud transformed him into an object of suspicion.

Last week, Dowless, through his lawyer, declined to testify before the elections board.

Harris, who has denied any personal knowledge of wrongdoing by Dowless or his associates, acknowledged that he hired Dowless in April 2017. But last Thursday, faced with days of evidence of wrongdoing by campaign workers and after offering “incorrect” testimony to the elections board, Harris called for a new election.

He said Tuesday that he would not run in the new contest, which has not been scheduled. His Democratic rival from last year, Dan McCready, entered the race Friday.

Dowless, 63, faces the gravest set of accusations, including three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, and could ultimately face other charges.

The charges are not related to the 2018 general election, which investigators are continuing to examine, but instead focus on the 2016 general election and last year’s primary.

L. McCrae Dowless Jr., the North Carolina political operative whose illicit voter-turnout effort on behalf of a Republican congressional candidate led the state to order a new election, has been indicted, a North Carolina prosecutor said Wednesday. Four other people were also charged.

In a statement Tuesday, less than one week after the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new contest for the seat, Harris attributed his decision to medical issues that included two recent strokes and issues with his memory and recall, saying the 9th District deserved “to have someone at full strength during the new campaign.”

“It is my hope that in the upcoming primary, a solid conservative leader will emerge to articulate the critical issues that face our nation,” said Harris, an evangelical pastor from Charlotte.

Harris’ decision was not especially surprising in the wake of an evidentiary hearing last week in Raleigh, where state officials and witnesses described an absentee ballot effort that was rife with misconduct. Although Harris denied any personal wrongdoing, he testified that he had hired the contractor at the center of the scandal, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., and he acknowledged that he gave “incorrect” testimony to the state board Thursday.

At the time, Harris blamed recent health problems in his announcement Tuesday, he cited his medical history and plans for surgery as factors in his decision not to run again.

The state board has not yet set a timetable for the new election, and Democrats are expected to mount an aggressive campaign. Dan McCready, the Democratic nominee in last fall’s race, said Friday that he would run in the new contest. Prominent Democratic officials and groups have already begun to coalesce around McCready, a former Marine who has been among his party’s most prized candidates.

“I view my job as to make the case to everyone in this district, whether they’re Republican, independent or Democrat,” McCready said in an interview Friday. “I hope to bring a leadership to Washington that people can be proud of.”

What is still uncertain is how much the wrongdoing associated with last year’s vote — conduct that a prosecutor said last week could soon lead to criminal charges — will loom over this new election. But Harris’ decision not to run could limit that line of attack, and Republican officials have expressed optimism that the 9th District campaign will eventually focus on policy issues.

Still, McCready suggested Friday that he could use the Harris-funded operation, which witnesses said included the illegal collection and completion of absentee ballots, to remind voters of the turmoil that enveloped the 9th.

“I’ve come to realize over the course of the last couple of months that what we’re up against is politicians who put themselves before the people they’re supposed to serve,” McCready said. “What we saw this week was a politician who let his own desire for power color his view, and he did the wrong thing instead of the right thing.”

Even before Harris announced his decision, many leading Republicans had begun to distance themselves from him, in public and in private, seemingly dimming the prospects for a rematch of last fall’s contest. In that race, Harris appeared to prevail by 905 votes, but state officials soon refused to certify him as the winner and announced the inquiry that ultimately led to the new election, the first redo of a congressional House seat in more than 40 years.

On Tuesday, Harris said he would support Stony Rushing, a commissioner from Union County, for the Republican nomination. The endorsement came one day after former Gov. Pat McCrory, who was among the most prominent Republicans to consider a campaign in the 9th, said he would not run. Instead, McCrory said he was considering a comeback bid for governor in 2020, or a Senate run in 2022.

The 9th, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina, will not have representation in the House until the new election has been completed and certified. Republicans have held the district’s House seat since 1963. The state’s 3rd District, which is on the Atlantic coast and includes the Outer Banks, has been vacant since earlier this month when Walter Jones, a Republican serving his 13th term, died. A special election for that seat has not been scheduled.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/mark-harris-nc-election.html" id="fe51787b-178d-3779-a8cd-fa86a3392ef5">The New York Times</a>.

Mark Harris, the North Carolina Republican who nearly won a seat in Congress last year but saw his political fortunes collapse after the revelation that his campaign had financed a fraud-tainted voter-turnout effort, said Tuesday that he would not run in a new election.

His Last Campaign Tainted by Fraud, Mark Harris Will Not Run in New North Carolina Election

Harris’ decision was not especially surprising in the wake of an evidentiary hearing last week in Raleigh, where state officials and witnesses described an absentee ballot effort that was rife with misconduct. Although Harris denied any personal wrongdoing, he testified that he had hired the contractor at the center of the scandal, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., and he acknowledged that he gave “incorrect” testimony to the state board last Thursday.

The state board has not yet set a timetable for the new election, and Democrats are expected to mount an aggressive campaign. Dan McCready, the Democratic nominee in last fall’s race, said on Friday that he would run in the new contest. Prominent Democratic officials and groups have already begun to coalesce around McCready, a former Marine who has been among his party’s most prized candidates.

Even before Harris announced his decision, many leading Republicans had begun to distance themselves from him, in public and in private, seemingly dimming the prospects for a rematch of last fall’s contest. In that race, Harris appeared to prevail by 905 votes, but state officials soon refused to certify him as the winner and announced the inquiry that ultimately led to the new election.

On Tuesday, Harris said he would support Stony Rushing, a commissioner from Union County, for the Republican nomination.

In a statement Tuesday, less than one week after the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new contest for the seat, Harris attributed his decision to his health and said the 9th District deserved “to have someone at full strength during the new campaign.”

At the time, Harris blamed recent health problems, including two strokes, for issues with memory and recall, and in his announcement Tuesday, he cited his medical history and plans for surgery as factors in his decision not to run again.

What is still uncertain is how much the wrongdoing associated with last year’s vote — conduct that could soon lead to criminal charges, a prosecutor said Friday — will loom over this new campaign. But Harris’ decision not to run could limit that line of attack, and Republican officials have expressed optimism that the 9th District campaign will eventually focus on policy issues.

But McCready suggested Friday that he could still use the Harris-funded operation, which witnesses said included the illegal collection and completion of absentee ballots, to remind voters of the turmoil that enveloped the 9th.

Even before Harris announced his decision, many leading Republicans had begun to distance themselves, in public and in private, from him, seemingly dimming the prospects for a rematch of last fall’s election. In that race, Harris appeared to prevail by 905 votes, but state officials soon refused to certify him as the winner and announced the inquiry that ultimately led to the new election.

The 9th, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina, will not have representation in the House until the new election has been completed and certified. Republicans have held the district’s House seat since 1963.

The unanimous ruling by the North Carolina State Board of Elections was a startling — and, for Republicans, embarrassing — turn in a case of political chicanery that convulsed North Carolina.

“It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District’s general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,” the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, said from the witness stand Thursday afternoon.

Harris’ announcement represented an abrupt collapse of the Republican effort to stave off a new vote in the 9th District, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina. But the evangelical pastor’s political surrender came only after a damaging 24 hours for Harris and his allies; just before Harris called for a new election, he acknowledged that some of his earlier testimony had been “incorrect.”

Although Harris maintained Thursday that he did not know, in real time, about any illegal behavior by L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a campaign contractor, or his workers, witnesses this week depicted an operation that was rife with misconduct, including the completion and collection of absentee ballots. Both actions are illegal in North Carolina, and witnesses said that they had occurred repeatedly.

Dowless, who refused to testify before the board, has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the 2018 election, nor have any of his workers, who were often friends or relatives with little ideological interest in politics. Prosecutors are examining the operation, though, and are considering whether to bring any criminal cases.

The North Carolina board’s decision will leave the 9th District in a state of protracted limbo: Already the site of the final unsettled House race of last year’s midterms, the district is now poised to remain without representation in Congress for at least several more months. It was not clear whether Harris, who had a 905-vote lead over his Democratic rival, Dan McCready, in last year’s election would choose to run in the new election.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/north-carolina-voter-fraud.html" id="11a45803-5288-3486-a546-5776e5a04710">The New York Times</a>.

New Election Ordered in North Carolina Race at Center of Fraud Inquiry

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina election authorities on Thursday ordered a new contest for Congress in the state’s 9th District after the Republican candidate, confronted by days of evidence that his campaign underwrote an illegal get-out-the-vote effort, abandoned his defense and called for a new vote.

“It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District’s general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,” the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, said from the witness stand on Thursday afternoon.

“I believe a new election should be called,” Harris told the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Thursday, the fourth day of a hearing that was examining allegations of an illegal voter-turnout operation.

“It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District’s general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,” Harris said to audible gasps in the hearing room in the North Carolina capital.

The state board did not immediately rule on Harris’ request, but the five-member panel is now virtually certain to order a new election. It was not immediately clear whether Harris, a pastor from Charlotte who had a 905-vote lead over his Democratic rival, Dan McCready, would run again for the congressional seat.

Harris’ announcement Thursday afternoon was an abrupt collapse of the Republican effort to stave off a new vote in the district, which includes part of Charlotte and runs through much of southeastern North Carolina.

But days of testimony, including some from Harris on Thursday morning, apparently led the Republican candidate to conclude that a new vote was appropriate. In doing so, Harris effectively acknowledged that L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a contractor he personally hired, and a network of employees had compromised the integrity of the vote. According to testimony this week, the workers collected absentee ballots — a violation of state law — and sometimes filled them in, or signed as witnesses when they in fact had no grounds to do so.

Dowless, who has not been charged with any crimes, declined to testify before the state board.

North Carolina Republican at Center of Fraud Inquiry Calls for New Election

RALEIGH, N.C. — Mark Harris, the Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina whose campaign is at the center of a fraud inquiry, on Thursday called for a new election.

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Alan Blinder

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