Harris campaign files emergency petition with North Carolina elections board to certify November results

The campaign of Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris filed an emergency petition on Friday to certify the results of the race in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, setting up a potential legal fight over an election that has been tainted by allegations of fraud in some of the district's rural counties.
The filing comes a day after a three-judge state court panel denied a stay to keep the state elections board in its current form, so the state elections board investigating the allegations in the 9th district is set to dissolve at noon Friday.
The board has refused to certify Harris as November's winner amid evidence of irregularities in the absentee ballot count and reports of a fraud scheme directed by a Republican operative hired by Harris' campaign.
Harris leads in the unofficial tally of the 2018 election by 905 votes over Democratic candidate Dan McCready.
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The Harris campaign wrote to the board that it, "is not aware of irregularities or other concerns sufficient in number to change the outcome of the election in the 9th district."
With no hearing scheduled for Friday morning, the board is unlikely to comply with the request.
If the board doesn't certify him, Harris told WBT radio in Charlotte he is willing to take the fight to court.
Now that the board is set to dissolve, board staffers can continue to work on the investigation, but they will not be able to issues subpoenas, hold hearings or call for a new election, said Joshua Lawson, the board's general counsel.
The board had planned to hold a hearing on the issue on or before December 21, but later set a date for January 11, 2019.
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The board's current structure had been struck down before the 2018 election, but the court had delayed implementing that order until now.
In their ruling, the judges said the board had not complied with previous court orders and that they had not provided enough information about why the hearing had been delayed.
Category:North Carolina History
Category:2010s