The scheme that resulted in the first time a new election has been ordered in North Carolina on fraud is getting its first criminal prosecution. Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative who was at the center of the scandal, was arrested after he was indicted by a grand jury on seven counts involving the collection of absentee ballots in the 2018 and 2016 elections. Dowless, who worked for Republican nominee Mark Harris, was charged with three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballot. Four other people—Caitlyn E. Croom, Matthew Monroe Mathis, Tonia Gordon and Rebecca Thompson—who Dowless allegedly paid to collect ballots were also charged.

Dowless has been accused of running a “ballot harvesting” operation that involved offering voters to put their absentee ballots in the mail. The charges came after some who worked for Dowless claimed they were told to collect blank and incomplete ballots and forge selections and signatures. Dowless “served to undermine the integrity of the absentee ballot process and the public’s confidence in the outcome of the electoral process,”notes the indictment.

Dowless is accused of “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did, with deceit and intent to defraud, obstruct public and legal justice by submitting or causing to be submitted by mail absentee ballots … in such a manner to conceal the fact that the voter had not personally mailed it himself,” according to the indictment.

The arrest comes after election officials in the state described the vote as an “absolute mess” and ordered a new election last week in the 9th Congressional District after months of controversy surrounding the contest between Harris and Democratic candidate Dan McCready. Harris, an evangelical minister, was leading by 905 votes, according to unofficial returns but the state never certified the victory due to the fraud claims. Harris won’t run in the new election. McCready plans to run again.