The election scandal engulfing North Carolina's 9th district, where Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, took an unusual turn on Friday night. Jens Lutz, the Vice Chair of the Bladen County Board of Elections abruptly resigned, WBTV reports.
Breaking tonight: Bladen Co. BOE Vice Chairman Jens Lutz has just resigned from the board. Resignation comes amid investigation into ballot irregularities in the county as part of #nc09 uncertainty #ncpolWhy? We don't know for sure but it may be related to his extensive connections to Leslie McCrae Dowless, the convicted felon at the center of the election fraud scandal in the 9th District.
A conservative political action committee called Patriots for Progress is also under investigation for possible election fraud by the State Bureau of Investigation. The group was founded in 2014 by Jeff Smith, who donated office space for McCrae Dowless' work on Republican Congressional candidate Mark Harris' campaign in 2018. In 2015, McCrae Dowless was the president of the PAC.
The first donation to Patriots for Progress came from Landon Bordeaux, the current president of the Bladen County GOP. Another early donation came from Politico Management Services LLC.
Lutz signed the articles of organization for Politico Management Services LLC and served as the registered agent. He was also one of two members of the LLC.
The other? Leslie McCrae Dowless.
Lutz, as Vice Chair of the Bladen County Board of Elections, was helping to coordinate the state's investigations into election fraud. But Lutz was business partners with the the central figure in the investigation (McCrae Dowless) and a donor to one of the entities under investigation (Patriots for Progress).
So now, the Bladen County Board of Elections will have to continue its work without its Vice Chair.
Who is the Chair of the Bladen County Board of Elections? Bobby Ludlum, McCrae Dowless' cousin.
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