A Trump-appointed federal judge ordered Democratic North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs' re-election victory to be certified on Monday, reported The News & Observer, dealing another blow to the state GOP's efforts to get enough ballots thrown out to flip the result of the race to GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin.
The race, which was decided by a margin of just over 700 votes, is the only race in last year's general election that has yet to be certified.
"Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers ... ruled that Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals, cannot 'change the rules of the game after it had been played,'" said the report. "Myers ordered the state not to throw out any votes and to certify the results of the election as they were at the close of the canvas period, with Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs winning by 734 votes."
Myers stayed his ruling by a week, giving Griffin time to appeal.
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At issue was a pile of 65,000 ballots that Griffin wanted recounted and ultimately thrown out for various technical reasons, which could erase Riggs' margin. After several courts turned these challenges away, a GOP-skewing panel for the state Court of Appeals, on which Griffin himself sits, ruled in his favor, demanding the ballots be cured within a certain time frame.
The state Supreme Court, which is 5-2 GOP, said 60,000 of these ballots could not be challenged because the issues were likely not the voters' fault, but still ruled a few thousand military voters would need to show their IDs to have their ballots counted, and around 300 others whose residency status was challenged would have their votes summarily thown out. Riggs blasted this ruling as "unacceptable."
"Myers’ decision, if it stands, means that the cure period will not begin and no votes will be discarded," said the report. "Griffin and the NC GOP are likely to appeal Myers’ ruling to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, though that court has already ruled against their efforts once."
