RALEIGH, N.C. — At Tuesday's continuation of the District 9 election investigation hearing, several poll workers testified about allegedly leaked early voting numbers.
Along with those allegations, another big development -- the political consulting firm Red Dome testified. The firm was hired by the Mark Harris campaign, and they were in charge of paying McCrea Dowless.
Dowless is the man at the center of the investigation involving tampered absentee ballots in two counties.
Andy Yates runs the consulting group. He said he never thought Dowless would do anything wrong. Yates said he thought Dowlesss was just a needy political junkie who wanted to please the Harris campaign.
"No red flags for me," Yates said.
Yates said the first time he heard the name McCrae Dowless was when he signed on to work for Mark Harris.
"I don't recall hearing his name until Dr. Harris told me about him," Yates said.
Yates said Dowless would submit requests for payments, but there was little documentation of what the money was for.
"Most of the time, I can't swear all the time, I didn't know what Mr Dowless did," Yates said.
Investigators for the Board of Elections says Dowless orchestrated a coordinated an unlawful absentee ballot operation in Bladen County.
In other testimony Tuesday, the Board heard allegations that early voting results had been leaked, and some poll workers like Michelle Maulsby had seen other workers looking at results.
When asked if she thought it was proper for workers to be looking at early voting results, Maulsby replied, "I know its not supposed to be done."
But there was no testimony linking any supposed leaks to Dowless.
Yates said when concerns were raised about absentee ballots in Bladen County, Dowless said he knew nothing about it.
"Dowless said it must be some political rival of his in Bladen Conty," Yates said.