Thursday was expected to be the final day for a grand jury meeting in Raleigh to determine if criminal charges should be recommended in connection to the 9th District congressional race.

The grand jury began meeting Tuesday. Already, McCrae Dowless of Bladenboro and four others have been arrested. The state Board of Elections and a former Republican candidate, the Rev. Mark Harris, turned over documents subpoenaed last month.

Harris hired Dowless. The state board’s four-day evidentiary hearing in February ended with Harris sticking to his story he knew of no misdeeds by Dowless despite, according to testimony, two years of warnings from his son and just one meeting to vet the political operative.

It also concluded with the order for a new election.

Dowless has been under investigation since at least 2016. The probes, though it is not known how many and if or how they may be intertwined, have included work by the Wake County district attorney, the FBI and the State Bureau of Investigation.

Harris defeated incumbent Robert Pittenger in the primary last spring, then appeared to finish 905 votes ahead of Democrat Dan McCready on Nov. 6.

Absentee ballots became the focus of an investigation by the state Board of Elections after it refused to certify the race and two others in Bladen County.

Dowless is accused of running a ballot harvesting scheme. He was charged with seven low-level felonies including ballot possession and obstruction of justice. Caitlyn Croom, Tonia Marie Gordon, Matthew Monroe Mathis and Rebecca D. Thompson also face charges.

On May 14, both Bladen County races will be decided, and the primary for 10 Republican hopefuls in the District 9 race will be held. The two Bladen races are for the District 3 seat on the county commission, and a supervisor seat on the Bladen County Soil & Water Conservation District board.

For District 3, incumbent Russell Priest of the Democratic Party will face Wayne Edge of the Republican Party.

For the nonpartisan Soil & Water seat, the choices are Earl Storms, Charles Wendell Gillespie and Tim Gause.

There have been no allegations of wrongdoing specifically connected to either Bladen County race.

The Republican primary that day will include Stevie Rivenbark Hull of Fayetteville, Matthew Ridenhour of Charlotte, Stony Rushing of Wingate, Fern Shubert of Marshville, Dr. Albert Lee Wiley of Atlantic Beach, Chris Anglin of Raleigh, state Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte, Leigh Thomas Brown of Harrisburg, Kathie C. Day of Cornelius and Gary Dunn of Matthews.

Early voting begins Wednesday in Bladen County. It will take place at the county Board of Elections office, 301 S. Cypress St. in Elizabethtown. The dates and hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., April 29-May 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and May 6-10 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on May 14.

If a second primary is needed, it will be Sept. 10 and the general election is Nov. 5.

If a second primary is not needed, the general election is Sept. 10.

In the general election along with McCready are Allen Smith of Charlotte and the Green Party, and Jeff Scott of Charlotte and the Libertarian Party.

Candidates do not have to live in the district they represent. The 9th District stretches from an eastern portion of Mecklenburg County to a southern portion of Cumberland County and northern portion of Bladen County, with all of Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland and Robeson counties included.

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Alan Wooten

Bladen Journal

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @alanwooten19.