The North Carolina Court of Appeals has moved to order a recount in a North Carolina Supreme Court race that Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin lost by just 734 votes to Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, reported The Guardian.
Griffin had sought for some 65,000 votes from military and overseas voters, and voters lacking certain registration info, to be thrown out. The court is ordering affected voters to approve their eligibility in just 15 days — a measure which, if allowed to stand, would likely overturn the result of the election and install the Republican.
The State Board of Elections already dismissed the challenge, and a lower court judge upheld their decision. The state Supreme Court, which is a 5-2 GOP majority, declined to hear the case immediately, so it could go through the appeals court.
This remains the only uncertified election from 2024.
Supporters of Riggs have attacked the case as an attempt to steal the election.
"Griffin currently sits on the North Carolina Court of Appeals – the body that issued Friday’s ruling. A panel of three of his colleagues heard the case," noted the report. Judges John Tyson and Fred Gore, writing for the 2-1 majority, wrote, “To permit unlawful votes to be counted along with lawful ballots in contested elections effectively ‘disenfranchises’ those voters who cast legal ballots, at least where the counting of unlawful votes determines an election’s outcome.”
Dissenting Judge Toby Hampson pointed out that the court did not provide any examples of a voter among these 60,000 who was proven ineligible, and wrote, “Changing the rules by which these lawful voters took part in our electoral process after the election to discard their otherwise valid votes in an attempt to alter the outcome of only one race among many on the ballot is directly counter to law, equity, and the constitution.”
In a statement, Riggs — who will recuse herself from anything involving this case — has vowed to appeal it up to the Supreme Court herself: “We will be promptly appealing this deeply misinformed decision that threatens to disenfranchise more than 65,000 lawful voters and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing disappointed politicians to thwart the will of the people.”
