Key witness testifies to tampering with absentee ballots in N.C, House race

[UpInArms]

Last edited Tue Feb 19, 2019, 05:52 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: NBC News

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Britt said some of the ballots she collected were unsealed and uncompleted and testified she filled out the options left blank for Republican candidates — an admission of vote tampering that violates North Carolina law.

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Britt, a convicted felon on probation who admitted to voting in the 2018 election despite being barred from doing so in North Carolina, is Dowless’ step-daughter. She said they have a very close father-daughter relationship, but she testified against Dowless, saying that she did simply what he directed her to do.

“I didn’t think my father would send me out to do anything illegal,” Britt said.

Britt said she was paid between $150 and $175 for the collection of 50 absentee ballot applications plus food and gas. That pay scale later changed to a flat rate of $200 per week because the work became more difficult. “A lot of people don’t want to give you their absentee ballot,” she said.

Admitting to illegal vote tampering, Britt said that she would fill out ballots she collected that weren’t fully completed. She said she recalled all of the incomplete ballots contained non-votes for lower offices, and that she would fill any omitted choices with “a vote for whoever was a Republican.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna972896

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Lisa Britt pauses before answering a question during the public evidentiary hearing on the 9th Congressional District investigation in Raleigh, North Carolina on Feb. 18, 2019.

[CottonBear]

1. Yesterday's NPR report stated she is Dowless' "former step-daughter."

In any case, both Dowless and Britt are guilty.

[pecosbob]

2. On a separate but related note

I guess if you're white it's okay to illegally vote in North Carolina. I recall an African-American woman was just sentenced to a five year sentence in Texas for the very same act.

[UpInArms]

3. Texas woman sentenced to 5 years in prison for voting while on probation

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/30/texas-woman-sentenced-5-years-prison-voting-while-probation/


Crystal Mason (Tarrant County Jail)

If she had known it was illegal, Crystal Mason said she would have never cast a vote in the 2016 presidential election.

The 43-year-old former tax preparer hadn’t even planned on voting until her mother encouraged her to do it. She had only recently been released from federal prison for a 2012 tax fraud conviction, in which she pleaded guilty to inflating returns for her clients, her attorney, J. Warren St. John, told The Washington Post.

She was still on community supervision at the time of the election — but no one, including her probation officer, St. John said, ever told her that being a felon on supervision meant she couldn’t vote under Texas law.

Now, she’s going back to prison for casting a ballot illegally — for five years.

[progressoid]

4. What's this crap about...

Near the end of the day, McCrae Dowless himself, who was in attendance at the hearing and had listened to the testimonies, was called as the last witness. Dowless' attorney, Cynthia Singletary, asked whether he was being compelled to testify, which the state board said would have granted him immunity under North Carolina law. The board then met with Dowless in closed session, after which they declined to compel him to testify. His lawyer would not allow him to testify voluntarily, and he was dismissed.

WTF?

[UpInArms]

5. He was not compelled ... and so, did not have immunity

... he did not testify voluntarily as a witness ...

That doesn’t mean that charges will not be filed ... he just gets to live another day ...

[diva77]

6. This absentee ballot scandal demonstrates yet another reason voting should be done ON election day

at the precinct level; the exception being for people with special needs. The chain of custody is too easy to corrupt.

[KelleyKramer]

7. All those down ballot races should also be voided

And if they don't get serious prison time it will guarantee that this happens again

Disgusting

[Sherman A1]

8. Yes

Both a serious amount of time and a fine that bankrupts them.