A federal judge said the dispute over who won a seat on North Carolina’s State Supreme Court should be handled in state court. The Monday order is a boost for Republican Jefferson Griffin, who trails Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs by 734 votes.
Griffin and the GOP are challenging 60,000 votes from the November election. Their biggest complaint is that many of those voter’s registrations don’t have a required driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number on file.
The Democratic-majority state Board of Elections has denied Griffin’s request to further investigate those ballots.
Federal Judge Richard Myers, a Trump appointee, said in his ruling that it made sense for the state to handle the dispute out of respect for state sovereignty.
Griffin has asked the North Carolina Supreme Court to consider his challenge. That court has a 5-2 Republican majority. Riggs has said she will recuse herself, which means there will only be one Democrat considering the challenge.
Some of the ballots that are being challenged were cast in eastern North Carolina.
The challenge impacts 391 voters in Carteret County; according to the voting rights group Common Cause, 197 of those voters are registered Republicans and 150 are senior citizens -- including a 98-year-old in Newport.
Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina Bob Phillips said multiple recounts and careful election audits overseen by the bipartisan State Board of Elections confirmed that Justice Allison Riggs won the most votes to keep her seat on the NC Supreme Court. And yet – two months after Election Day – losing NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin still refuses to accept the will of North Carolina voters.
Voters with ballots that may be challenged should have gotten a notice in the mail.
The deadline for the state to certify a winner is Friday.
