Dowless enters not guilty pleas to federal charges connected to election work income
Alan Wooten Bladen Journal RALEIGH — McCrae Dowless, accused of being the mastermind of an absentee ballot fraud operation in 2018, pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges. Appearing before Judge Terrence Boyle in U.S. District Court, the Bladenboro 65-year-old made the pleas 10 months after his indictment by a grand jury. Prosecutors have charged him with four counts of hiding more than $100,000 in income from the Social Security Administration, money they say was paid him by at least two candidates in the 2018 election. One of the candidates known to have paid him was the Rev. Mark ...