When we last left North Carolina, the outgoing State Election Board had declined to certify the results in the Ninth Congressional District because of a concerted effort by the Republican candidate’s campaign to violate state election law related to the collection of absentee ballots.  However, before the Board could complete its investigation, the old Board (created under an unconstitutional statute enacted in 2016 by the Republican legislature and the outgoing Republican governor to reduce the power of the incoming Democratic governor) expired by court order. 

After the Republicans delayed as long as possible (avoiding any interim Board), Governor Roy Cooper appointed a new Board this past week.  The new Board quickly organized in a telephonic meeting and intends to hold its first official meeting as soon as possible at which time they will schedule a hearing to determine whether to certify the results in the Ninth Congressional district or to set aside those results for fraud and schedule a revote in the race between Mark Harris and Dan McCready. 

At this point in time, we are probably looking at late February or early March before we know for sure what the State Election Board will decide.

UPDATE:  The Board has set the hearing on the Ninth District for the week of February 18 (beginning on Monday with Tuesday and Wednesday set as possible additional hearing dates if the hearing takes more than one day).  It is unclear if the Board will take a vote at the end of the hearing or will schedule another date for deliberations and a final decision.