(The Center Square) – Decisions on an unsettled election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court are ongoing in federal and state courts, with more dates in the process set late Friday afternoon.
Combined there are five dates for filings and responses in an 11-day span, with appearances in front of a federal bench three days later.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., on Friday said it will hear oral arguments on Jan. 27. Opening briefs are to be filed Wednesday and responsive briefs on Jan. 22. In the case of Jefferson Griffin v North Carolina State Board of Elections, there was no stay granted as requested by the state board.
The state Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a motion for a temporary stay that blocked the state board from giving a final certificate in the race between Griffin and incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. She was recused from the decision. Briefs and replies are to be filed Tuesday, Jan. 21 and Jan. 24.
The stay in the state court was first announced noting one dissent from Justice Anita Earls. It was later amended to include a lengthy dissent from Justice Richard Dietz, making the decision 4-2.
Riggs and Earls are Democrats; Griffin and Dietz are Republicans. The four justices in favor of the stay are also Republicans: Chief Justice Paul Newby, and Associate Justices Phil Berger Jr., Tamara Barringer and Trey Allen.
The duel between Riggs and Griffin for Seat 6 on the state Supreme Court has reached a third month since Election Day. Griffin, state appellate court judge, has protested more than 60,000 ballots and the state board has dismissed all protests leaving Riggs in a 734-vote victory awaiting the election certificate of the state board.
On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of more than 5.5 million cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 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 back 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 state Supreme Court is scheduled to begin work on its caseload in February.
