Votes Under Fire: The Court Battle That Could Shape North Carolina’s Judiciary
Jefferson Griffin and Allison Riggs on February 7th in Wake County Superior Court. Left Source: Robert Willett / AP; Right Source: Rusty Jacobs / WUNC
The outcome of an election for a seat on the NC Supreme Court is currently being contested by Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin in an attempt to unseat Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs. Riggs was appointed to the NC Supreme Court in 2023 after serving on the Court of Appeals. She is outspoken about both reproductive and voting rights and spent fourteen years working with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. The Republican candidate, Griffin, has served on the NC Court of Appeals since 2020. He is a veteran who emphasizes a commitment to originalist and textualist interpretations of the Constitution.
On November 5th, 2024, the North Carolina State Board of Elections announced that Riggs won the election for the NC Supreme Court, with a narrow victory of 734 out of 5.5 million votes. Shortly after, Griffin sued the NCSBE, claiming that roughly 66,000 votes should be discounted from the total. The majority of those ballots were cast by voters who were not required to provide a valid form of identification, such as a valid driver’s license or Social Security number. The rest of the contested votes were cast by military or overseas voters and “never residents” (those who were allowed to vote in North Carolina despite never having lived there.) Griffin is claiming that the ballot forms that residents were provided did not ask for the proper information that is required under both state and federal law.
Despite two recounts of the initial election results, this case has visited several courtrooms. In December, the State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s protests, stating that the challenges he proposed did not follow proper procedures and that the ballots remained valid under existing state laws and procedures. The NCSBE reiterated that overseas voters are not required to provide photo ID under the law and are allowed to declare North Carolina as their home. Additionally, Griffin filed his protests after the election, raising concerns that the disenfranchisement of the contested voters would violate the federal Due Process Clause and National Voter Registration Act. The vote to dismiss the case was based on the fact that the ballots contained clerical errors by election officials, which voters are not at fault for. Republican board members pushed for additional hearings, while Democratic members argued that disqualifying thousands of ballots from otherwise eligible voters was undemocratic.
On February 7th, the case was brought to the Wake County Superior Court, which upheld the Board of Elections’ dismissal, concluding that the decisions made by the Board were lawful and within their authority. This Monday, Griffin filed a notice of appeal with the North Carolina Court of Appeals, seeking to overturn the superior court’s decision. The following day, he also submitted a motion requesting an expedited briefing schedule, given the high stakes of the case. As Griffin continued to push for a faster ruling in the Court of Appeals, the NCSBE filed a petition to bypass the Court of Appeals to move the case directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court, hoping to expedite the final resolution of the case. This attempt to expedite the case was recently declined, signifying that the case will continue on a slower path through the Court of Appeals.
Griffin has sought intervention from the federal courts multiple times, arguing that the inclusion of the disputed ballots violated federal law. Federal courts have held fast that the dispute should be handled within the state judicial system, yet the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s recent refusal to claim the case could change that. The appellate judges ruled that the Trump-elected US Chief District Judge “must address any federal legal issues that remain once state courts have ruled on all state law issues in Griffin’s ballot challenges”.
The outcome of this race could have profound implications for the future of the state’s judiciary. The current North Carolina Supreme Court has a 5-2 Republican majority, making it an incredibly contested race to begin with. If Griffin were to successfully overturn the votes and win the election, the expanded Republican majority would further solidify conservative influence over the court's decisions.
Griffin is mainly challenging Democratic-leaning counties, which can put many Orange County votes at risk of being contested. If you want to check if your vote is being contested in North Carolina, there is a user-friendly website to confirm.
The right to retroactively dismiss ballots is not protected by the US Constitution or the NC Constitution. However, this is not the first time that a Republican candidate has attempted to overturn an election using the same tactics; President Trump sought to do the same after his 2020 election loss. If Griffin is able to win in North Carolina, this strategy is likely to continue to be used more often and on a larger scale, which could have grave consequences for the integrity of future elections. The ability to discount votes only serves to deepen public mistrust of elections.