NC operative accused of election fraud is sentenced to prison for financial crimes

RALEIGH -- A North Carolina political operative at the center of a 2018 ballot-harvesting scandal was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday for financial crimes separate from the election case.

Leslie McCrae Dowless was accused of concealing that he was receiving income as a consultant while also receiving monthly disability payments, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

The financial charges prosecutors brought against Dowless, of Bladen County, were the result of a state investigation into election fraud in the 2018 9th Congressional District race. Dowless, 65, is accused of running an absentee ballot scheme in that election, The News & Observer previously reported. He faces separate charges in that case, which is ongoing and led by Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.

In June, Dowless pleaded guilty to charges of theft of government property and Social Security fraud and agreed to pay up to $14,000 in restitution for the fraudulent disability payments he received. As part of that plea deal, prosecutors dismissed two other charges related to his financial crimes.

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article253947168.html

Dowless was harvesting ballots for a Republican congressional campaign.