North Carolina Republican ignored warning about election fraud — from his son

North Carolina Republican Mark Harris — who is under investigation for election fraud during his 2018 congressional campaign — was personally warned that a consultant he was thinking of hiring had a history of carrying out massive election fraud. Harris went ahead and hired him anyway.

That revelation came Wednesday during what’s now been a 3-day hearing by the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which is probing the alleged fraud and whether it warrants a do-over election in North Carolina’s competitive 9th District.

And the revelation came, of all places, from Harris’ own son — who took the witness stand in the hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

Harris’ son John testified before the NCSBOE, that he told his dad and his dad’s campaign consultant Andy Yates that he warned his dad about hiring McCrae Dowless, who appeared to be part of another election fraud scandal in 2016.

Yet Harris went ahead and hired Dowless — who is now accused of illegally harvesting absentee ballots for Harris’ 2018 bid.

John Harris testified that he thought Dowless “might be kind of a shady character” who was part of a separate election fraud scandal in 2016, in which Dowless was “illegally collecting ballots.” And John Harris said he raised these concerns with both to his father and Yates.

The testimony came after Yates took the stand over the course of two days — and repeatedly denied knowing that Dowless had a history of election fraud.

“I don’t know that anybody on the campaign should have known,” Yates said during the hearing before the NCSBOE, according to local news station WRAL. “This is definitely asking me to speculate. There may have been people in Bladen County that should have known.”

The outcome of the NCSBOE’s hearing could ultimately determine whether a new election will be held in North Carolina’s 9th District. As it stands, Harris currently leads his Democratic opponent, Dan McCready, by 905 votes.

Harris’ son’s testimony could be key to that determination, given that we now know that Harris was warned about Dowless’ past behavior yet went ahead and used his absentee ballot services anyway.

Thanksgiving dinner at the Harris household might be very, very awkward this year.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.