A federal judge, said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday night, is next up to consider a North Carolina Supreme Court decision in the nation’s last unresolved race from the Nov. 5 elections.
Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin are battling for Seat 6 on the state Supreme Court bench. Following the stay granted by the federal appellate court, Chief Judge Richard Myers of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is to consider the process endorsed by the state high court.
Riggs, the North Carolina Democratic Party, the State Board of Elections, and multiple activist groups will try to convince Myers to not allow the state Supreme Court choice of a curing process for overseas voters’ ballots. A recalculation of the totals would follow.
Published reports say the number of ballots ranges between 1,500 and 6,000.
On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.
Riggs has been poised for a 734-vote win. Griffin protested about 65,000 ballots on multiple counts, and the state board rejected all of them. Most were by 3-2 party-line votes.
The protests the state board denied included registration records of voters, such as lack of providing either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. State law for that has been in place two decades, dating to 2004.
Other ballots protested and denied by the state board included voters overseas who have never lived in the United States, and for lack of photo identification provided with military and overseas voters. The latter is at issue for Myers.
The Supreme Court bench has historically been both nonpartisan and partisan, and since going back to the latter, was 6-1 Democrats in 2019. It is 5-2 Republicans today.
Riggs has been recused from all actions involving the state Supreme Court. She remains seated until the election is resolved. Griffin is a judge on the state Court of Appeals and has been recused from all actions there as well.
