The North Carolina Board of Elections confirmed Friday in a statement that Dowless is a \"person of interest in connection with an alleged absentee ballot operation in the congressional district.\"
According to several news reports and sworn affidavits from North Carolina voters, Dowless is alleged to have led an operation wherein he and others working for him went door to door in two rural North Carolina counties collecting at times incomplete absentee ballots from voters and then submitting them to state election officials.
Under North Carolina state law, only a voter, voter's near relatives or a voter’s legal guardian is legally allowed to drop off an absentee ballot.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/harris-ap-er-181204_hpEmbed_22x15_384.jpg\")
Chuck Burton/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C., Nov. 7, 2018.
The investigation is being led by chief investigator Joan Fleming, who specialized in fraud investigations during her 26-year tenure as an FBI special agent.
The board is set to hold a public hearing on the allegations of election fraud on or before December 21st, but an exact date has not yet been announced.
The Wake County District Attorney's office has also confirmed to ABC News that they have launched an investigation into the alleged fraud.
Harris' Democratic opponent, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and solar energy entrepreneur Dan McCready, officially withdrew his concession to Harris on Thursday night, speaking exclusively with WSOC's Joe Bruno and tweeting out a video where he accused Harris of \"bankrolling\" the alleged wrongdoing and calling on him to \"end his silence and tell us exactly what he knew, and when.\"
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