FILE – In this Dec. 5, 2018 photo, Leslie McCrae Dowless poses for a portrait outside of his home in Bladenboro, N. C. N.C. Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach warned in a January 2017 letter obtained by The Associated Press that those involved in illegally harvesting absentee ballots in rural Bladen County would likely do it again if they weren’t prosecuted. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP)