A defiant Georgia representative said he won't step down after an 11Alive investigation found the lawmaker may no longer live in the country - and instead possibly lives in the United Kingdom.
Republican state Rep. David Stover represents voters in District 71 which encompasses Coweta County. His district office is in Newnan, but voters told 11Alive he is chronically absent from his legislative office.
11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross tried repeatedly to get in touch with the representative - calling him, emailing Stover's official email address, messaging his state Facebook account, even knocking on the listed address for his home and stopping by his office. No reply.
A day after 11Alive's story aired, however, Stover did respond - in a Facebook post on his public page.
In the lengthy post, Stover gave his side of the story on why 11Alive was unable to reach him, in addition to explaining his absences during legislative and special sessions and votes.
"During that (2017-2018 Legislative) term my voting record fell out as average and, in fact, over half of the Members of The House missed more votes than I did," Stover wrote. "So I did miss 38 out of over 800+ votes, many of which were procedural in nature, but that is fewer than most of my colleagues. During the special session, I had a fever of over 102 and was unable to attend. This was communicated to the administrative personnel in The Georgia House as well."
Stover then adamantly denied living in outside of his district.
"I do not reside in the UK," he wrote. "Further, I do not have a visa to stay in the UK long-term and I have not applied for one."
Stover said he would absolutely not resign and maintains he lives in his mother's basement. His residency was challenged in a lawsuit back in May, and in those court documents, he said he could live in a tent if he wanted to.
