if you look at covington's website, they've stripped it all the way down. can't blame them, but there are archives…. http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.covdio.org/
2 & 3 last archive of their usual website: http://web.archive.org/web/20190119164206/https://www.covdio.org/
"Lawyers for McCready" — swampy reuters didn't mention one of his lawyers is…..
"Marc E. Elias, an election expert who is working on behalf of Mr. McCready, said North Carolina law permits the board to take the time to get the result right."
http://archive.is/6vOPk
North Carolina Judge Declines to Certify Winner of Disputed Congressional Race
Lawyers for Republican Mark Harris, who led in the balloting, says fight could mean district could be without representation for the two-year House term
Wake County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway wouldn’t certify a winner in the disputed U.S. House race for North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District.
Willett/The News & Observer/Press Pool
By Valerie Bauerlein
Jan. 22, 2019 4:54 p.m. ET
RALEIGH, N. C.—A state judge denied Republican Mark Harris’s request to be certified the winner of a disputed Congressional race, increasing the likelihood the Charlotte-based seat will remain open for months.
Mr. Harris, who held a 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready in unofficial results, asked the court to certify the vote after a separate court proceeding last month disbanded the state board of elections.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said Tuesday that a new state election board should have the opportunity to consider the results of an investigation into alleged election fraud in the district and decide what to do about it. A new election board is to be seated on Jan. 31, according to a recently passed state law.
The dispute over the last open seat in the new House of Representatives involves a tight vote, allegations of fraud and a separate battle between the GOP-led legislature and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper over the composition of the politically appointed state elections board.
It isn’t clear when the case will be resolved. Lawyers for Mr. Harris said the 750,000 people in the Ninth Congressional District could be without representation for the two-year House term.
Lawyers for the state and for Mr. Harris said in court Tuesday that they were in a situation with scant precedent.
Alex Dale, a lawyer for Mr. Harris, said the board missed traditional deadlines for certifying the election result. The timeline shouldn’t change because of the dispute over the board’s composition and an incomplete investigation by its professional staff, he said.
“The state board knows it can’t drag this out indefinitely,” Mr. Dale said. “That’s not how representative government works.”
Marc E. Elias, an election expert who is working on behalf of Mr. McCready, said North Carolina law permits the board to take the time to get the result right.
Amar Majmundar, senior deputy attorney general who was representing the state, said Mr. Harris was leading in the vote count but hadn’t won yet. Mr. Majmundar said he was confident “the evidence will demonstrate that margin is in question,” though he didn’t specify why.
Election officials are looking at hundreds of absentee ballot requests collected by the same handful of people in Bladen County in the rural eastern part of the Ninth District. The state board said a political consultant working on behalf of the Harris campaign, Leslie McCrae Dowless, may have led an improper vote-harvesting scheme.
The state board executive director, Kim Westbrook Strach, said the board’s professional staff is preparing for a public hearing that will air evidence on alleged irregularities once a new board of elections is seated.
“We look forward to providing a full accounting of what transpired,” said Ms. Strach. “Public confidence in our elections system demands it.”
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com