Documents detail how absentee ballots gathered in NC vote

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Newly released affidavits allege absentee ballots were collected from North Carolina voters by the man at the center of vote fraud allegations or those working for him.

The latest documents were released by the state elections board Sunday and focus on last month's 9th Congressional District race.

One voter alleges he gave his signed but otherwise blank mail-in absentee ballot directly to McCrae Dowless, who had been hired by the chief strategist for Republican Mark Harris' campaign. It's illegal for anyone other than a close relative or guardian to take a person's ballot.

Dowless is a "person of interest" in an ongoing criminal investigation into irregularities in the 9th District race.

Another document from a Harvard University professor determined rates of unreturned absentee ballots in two 9th District counties were "extreme statistical outliers."