the board opened an investigation around dowless, a campaign operative with felony fraud and perjury convictions, who was hired by the harris campaign. dowless was suspected of electoral fraud in 2014, allegedly mishandling absentee ballots. dowless had worked for jim mcvicker's campaign for sheriff. mcvicker won that race by a narrow margin and did not respond to inquiries about it in 2018. dowless worked for mcvicker again in the 2018 republican primary and the general election for sheriff.