The White Lady December 2018

“The white lady” who kept coming up in the investigation was a woman named Lisa Britt, a 39-year-old mother who happens to be McCrae Dowless’s stepdaughter. Britt spent much of her early adulthood in and out of jail for larceny, forgery, voter fraud, and similar charges. In May 2018, she was a convicted felon on probation when she cast a ballot for Mark Harris—a clear case of voter fraud. National media and state investigators descended upon Bladen County in the first few weeks of December, and they kept coming back to Britt’s name, which was signed to more than 40 absentee ballot request forms. Meanwhile, several Bladen County elections officials resigned under the spotlight. On December 12, co-author Nick Ochsner got a call from Britt to say she’d do an interview, but only if she could do it at Dowless’s house. Nick did the interview—and, separately, also interviewed Mark Harris on camera. Both would become a key piece of the investigation later.