‘Person of interest’ in elections fraud investigation was ‘throwing ballots in the wastebasket,’ Democratic party chair says

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WECT) - Bladen County Democratic Party Chairman Ben Snyder said in an interview with WECT that reliable sources have told him McCrae Dowless, who is at the center of an elections fraud investigation so serious voters may have to go back to the polls for an elections do over, upped the ante this election to make sure his candidates won.

“McCrae told people he was throwing ballots in the wastebasket,” Snyder told WECT. “That was a new trick this election.”

Snyder said his concerns in this case are bigger than political party or individual candidates, but in-fighting and partisan bickering have become an unfortunate distraction in his own party. He blames finger pointing for the abrupt resignation of Jens Lutz, the Vice-Chairman of the Bladen County Board of Elections who stepped down from that job on Friday.

“I wasn’t surprised. When the guy called me from the New York Times and I found out a married couple had said negative things about Jens,” Snyder said of the pressure being put on Lutz, the man who he’d nominated to serve on the Bladen County Board of Elections earlier this year.

“He was a tremendous asset for the party,” Snyder continued. “He’s the most knowledgeable Democrat about Republican antics in the whole county,” Snyder said of Lutz. He declined to name who had attacked Lutz, but said, “they would rather purge people from the party who don’t think and act in a way they feel is necessary.”

Bladen County Democrats are having a private meeting Monday night to discuss recent developments and the fallout from the November election.

“They want the Democrats to go to war with the Republicans, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t like that tactic as long as I’m chairman,” Snyder said of the issues his party is dealing with.

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