on february 4, the new board set the hearing for february 18. on february 18, 2019, the regulator reported that it had found evidence of "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme" that may have involved more than 1,000 ballots or ballot request forms. that day, lisa britt, the daughter of dowless's ex-wife, admitted to tampering with ballots on the direction of dowless – including filling in blank votes to favor republican candidates . on february 20, harris's son, john harris, a federal prosecutor in north carolina, testified to the election board that he had repeatedly warned his father not to hire dowless because dowless appeared to have previously engaged in illegal tactics to win votes. john harris also testified that he had expressed similar concerns to his father's chief campaign strategist, andy yates. email records were shown of his discussion of the issue with his father. his father had maintained that he had not been warned of problems with dowless's reputation and had testified to that effect.