A months-long battle over a North Carolina Supreme Court seat continues as candidates navigate through complex legal proceedings.
According to ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, Wake County Superior Court Judge William Pittman upheld previous decisions by election officials to reject protests filed by Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin, who seeks to remove tens of thousands of contested ballots from the race tallies.
The ruling appears to favor Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs, who maintains a slim 734-vote lead over Griffin after more than 5.5 million ballots were cast and two recounts. The race remains uncertified three months after the November 5 elections, making it one of the few unresolved contests nationwide.
Griffin's legal team has challenged over 65,000 ballots, focusing on three categories of voters they claim should not have been included in the race tallies. The majority of disputed ballots, approximately 60,000, were cast by voters whose registration records allegedly lack either a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.
NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons explained their position regarding the contested ballots:
We went where the data went. In this particular case that we've outlined on these three issues, when we pull the data that's where the data led.
The challenge also targets hundreds of overseas voters who have never lived in the United States and thousands of military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots.
Audrey Meigs, a Durham County voter whose ballot was challenged, discovered the situation after receiving a letter from the NCGOP. Upon investigation with the Durham County Board of Elections, she learned her registration was complete and valid, having provided the required Social Security information.
Rachel Arnold, a Guilford County voter, expressed concern about the broader implications of the challenges:
No one should be turning a blind eye to this, because at any moment it could be your vote, your candidate, your values that are on the line.
State Board of Elections representatives and Riggs' legal team argue that many legitimate reasons exist for missing registration numbers, and approximately half of the 60,000 challenged registrants actually provided the required information.
The case has moved between state and federal court systems, with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently directing the matter back to state courts. The panel cited conflicting interpretations of North Carolina law as the basis for their decision.
The case is expected to reach the state Supreme Court, where five of the six remaining justices are registered Republicans, as Riggs will recuse herself from case deliberations. However, the federal court's ruling allows Riggs to return to federal court if state court actions favor Griffin.
NCDP Chair Anderson Clayton has called for Griffin to concede, while the NCGOP maintains their support for Griffin's pursuit of election integrity.
The contested North Carolina Supreme Court race between Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin remains in limbo following Judge Pittman's ruling. The dispute centers around the validity of over 65,000 ballots, with Griffin's team challenging voter registration requirements and overseas voter qualifications. As both sides prepare for potential appeals, the case highlights broader questions about election integrity and voter access in North Carolina.
