North Carolina Supreme Court GOP Candidate ‘Seeks to Tilt the Playing Field in His Favor’
Today the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an extended version of its order blocking the certification of a race for a seat on its own bench, which included extended, scathing dissents from Democratic Justice Anita Earls and Republican Justice Richard Dietz.
“At bottom, the timing of [Jefferson] Griffin’s claims speaks volumes about their substance,” Earls wrote. “By waiting until after the votes were cast and the results tallied, Griffin seeks to retroactively rewrite the rules of the election to tilt the playing field in his favor.”
Griffin, the GOP candidate for the state Supreme Court, lost to Democratic Incumbent Justice Allison Riggs in the initial vote count and after the two subsequent recounts. He filed challenges to over 60,000 ballots, and after the North Carolina Board of Elections rejected his challenges, he took his case to court.
The Court’s overwhelming Republican majority decided to temporarily block certification of the race Tuesday and agreed to hear Griffin’s ballot challenges case.
In an amended version of the order released Wednesday morning, Justice Trey Allen issued a concurring opinion, saying that he agrees with the majority but wanted to emphasize that just because the court granted Griffin’s request to temporarily block election certification while litigation is ongoing doesn’t necessarily mean that the race won’t ever be certified.
Earls had a brief dissenting opinion in the original order, but the new order included an eight-page dissent in which she criticized many aspects of Griffin’s case.
“These legal arguments rest on factual assumptions that he has failed to prove,” Earls said. “These claims, sweeping as they are, could—and should—have been brought long before voters went to the polls. From the Court’s indulgence of this sort of fact-free post-election gamesmanship, I dissent.”
Republican Justice Richard Dietz, who has prided himself on not issuing dissenting opinions on the principle of collaboration, dissented in this case, agreeing with Earls’ arguments that this case should have been brought before the election, not after.
He said although the case might succeed on its merits, the Court shouldn’t grant him a victory because it could “lead to doubts about the finality of vote counts following an election” and “encourage novel legal challenges that greatly delay certification of the results.”
“Permitting post-election litigation that seeks to rewrite our state’s election rules—and, as a result, remove the right to vote in an election from people who already lawfully voted under the existing rules — invites incredible mischief,” Dietz said.
These additional opinions from the justices don’t affect Tuesday’s decision but could provide insight into how the state’s highest court will ultimately rule on the highly consequential case and which arguments they’ll consider.
Learn more about the case here.
Previous update, Jan. 7
The Supreme Court of North Carolina, which is majority-Republican, blocked the certification of a race for a seat on its own court while litigation is ongoing in GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin’s ballot challenges case.
In its Tuesday decision, the majority-Republican Court said that it would hear Griffin’s case challenging the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ decision to reject his challenges to over 60,000 ballots.
“The crisis of democracy didn’t end with [President-elect Donald] Trump’s victory—it got worse,” Ben Wikler, candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on X. “When North Carolina’s state Supreme Court is blocking certification of a state Supreme Court election, the house is on fire.”
The Court gave Griffin until next Tuesday to file a brief in the case and set a schedule for the state election board to file its response.
The state election board scheduled certification of the highly contentious race for Friday, which will not happen now due to the Court’s order. Due to the Court’s new timeline, the race may not be resolved until late January.
Griffin is running against Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, whose victory in the race was confirmed in two separate recounts. She recused herself from this case.
“Allison Riggs won and the recount confirmed it,” former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said in a post on X. “Republicans want to toss thousands of legal votes in the trash because they don’t like the outcome. This shouldn’t be about party politics — this should be about making sure every vote counts & that our elections still mean something.”
The other Democratic member of the Court, Justice Anita Earls, dissented, arguing that it’s highly unlikely that the case will succeed and that “the public interest requires that the Court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution.”
Griffin filed this lawsuit directly in the state Supreme Court Dec. 18, and the state election board motioned to move the case to a federal court. On Monday, the district court sent the case back to North Carolina’s highest court.
On Tuesday, Riggs and the state election board appealed the federal court’s decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The state Supreme Court acknowledged this appeal but said that it still issued its order because “the matter must be addressed expeditiously.”
Griffin also has another ongoing case regarding his ballot challenges. On Dec. 20, Griffin filed three other lawsuits — similar to the one he brought in the state’s highest court — in the Wake County Superior Court, and those were moved to the federal district court and consolidated. Litigation is still ongoing in that case.
Learn more about the case here.
This article was updated at 3:45 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2025, to add a quote from former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D).
Previous update, Jan. 2
Jefferson Griffin, the GOP candidate for the Supreme Court of North Carolina, filed new legal actions against the state election board’s decision to reject his challenges to more than 60,000 ballots in his race.
On Dec. 18, Griffin sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections in the state’s highest court, which he’s running for and has a Republican majority, and the board moved the case to federal court the next day.
The case challenged three categories of ballots — those cast by voters with allegedly incomplete voter registrations, overseas voters who have never resided in North Carolina and overseas voters who did not provide photo ID with their absentee ballots.
Then, Griffin filed three new legal complaints Dec. 20 in the Wake County Superior Court, each one challenging one of the aforementioned types of ballots. Once again, the board motioned to move the cases from state to federal court, where they have been consolidated.
The race is extremely close, but two recounts in the state — one machine and one hand count — both confirmed that incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs won the race.
Both of Griffin’s election cases are ongoing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Learn more about his Dec. 20 case here.
Learn more about his Dec. 18 case here.
After North Carolina’s election board rejected Jefferson Griffin’s bid to invalidate tens of thousands of votes, the GOP Supreme Court candidate is asking the state’s highest court — the court he’s seeking to join — to intervene.
Griffin’s attorneys filed a legal action Wednesday asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to block the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) from counting the 60,000 ballots he challenged, and to order the board to “correct the vote count.” He’s also asking the court to temporarily pause the board’s certification of the election.
“In the 2024 general election, the Board’s errors changed the outcome of the election for the open seat on this Court,” the filing said. “When those errors were raised again in valid election protests, the Board then claimed that it was too late to fix its law-breaking.”
In response, an NCSBE spokesman pointed to the board’s order filed in Wake County Superior Court after the hearing. The order said the board determined Griffin’s protests “did not establish probable cause to believe that a violation of election law or irregularity or misconduct occurred in the protested elections.”
When reached by Democracy Docket, Griffin’s opponent incumbent Justice Allison Riggs’s (D) campaign said it would issue a statement in response to Griffin’s motion. The filing comes after the NCSBE blocked Griffin’s various attempts to get certain ballots tossed. Griffin had 10 days to appeal the decision in Wake County Superior Court.
The protests, and the motion, seem to mark an eleventh-hour bid from Griffin to gain an advantage in the race against Riggs. The results of the initial machine count put Riggs ahead of Griffin by 623 votes. A machine recount requested by Griffin gave Riggs an even bigger lead. Riggs has repeatedly declared victory, and her counsel urged the board to reject Griffin’s requests.
In a vote split mostly along party lines, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) on Wednesday rejected GOP Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s bid to invalidate tens of thousands of ballots statewide.
The board held a probable cause hearing during which members passed a series of motions blocking Griffin’s various attempts to get certain ballots tossed. “The importance of people being able to vote and not being disenfranchised is extraordinarily important,” Chairman Alan Hirsch (D) said before adjourning the hearing. “It’s a fundamental constitutional right.”
Last month, Griffin filed challenges with the board to over 60,000 ballots. A review of the protests found that Griffin targeted ballots cast by people whose voter registration may be incomplete and absentee ballots cast by voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Before the election, the Republican National Committee tried but failed to block certain overseas ballots from being counted.
On Wednesday, the board adopted four motions that rejected Griffin’s challenges to certain votes from residents living overseas and ballots from people who didn’t provide a driver’s license or social security number on their registration form.
While the board’s three Democrats largely overruled the two Republican members who voted to move forward with Griffin’s protests, the board ruled unanimously against disenfranchising military and service members who did not provide a voter ID when they cast their ballots.
“We have previously adopted a rule that says military and overseas voters are not required to show a voter ID,” Republican board member Stacy Eggers explained. “And that rule has been promulgated through this board and approved by the Rules Review Commission. Unless the court says otherwise, I’d find we’re bound by that rule.”
The protests seemed to mark an eleventh-hour bid from Griffin to gain an advantage in the race against incumbent Justice Allison Riggs (D). The results of the initial machine count put Riggs ahead of Griffin by 623 votes.
A machine recount requested by Griffin gave Riggs an even bigger lead. Riggs has repeatedly declared victory, and her counsel urged the board to reject Griffin’s requests.
Griffin then requested a partial hand recount that again confirmed Riggs’s lead. The NCSBE board said Tuesday it would not order a full hand recount. In an emailed statement, Riggs called Griffin’s protests an “unprecedented attempt to overturn the verdict already delivered by North Carolinian voters.”
The matter isn’t completely resolved. Griffin has 10 days to appeal the board’s decision in Wake County Superior Court. Additionally, some county boards of elections still must hold evidentiary hearings about felon, deceased, and removed voters, which were also among Griffin’s challenges.
As the recount in North Carolina’s state Supreme Court race gets underway, Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is challenging the validity of tens of thousands of ballots statewide.
One of two Democrats on the seven-member high court, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, is locked into a tight race with appeals court judge Griffin (R). Griffin was leading on Election Day, but Riggs is ahead by roughly 625 votes.
On Tuesday, Griffin requested a recount. He also filed challenges to over 60,000 ballots, according to a release from the North Carolina Republican Party. The release said Griffin’s protests focus on “specific irregularities and discrepancies in the handling and counting of ballots, raising concerns about adherence to established election laws.”
“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process. Protecting election integrity is not just an option—it’s our duty,” Griffin said. “These protests are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
A review of the challenges filed with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) found that Griffin targeted ballots cast by people with prior felony convictions, ballots cast by people whose voter registration may be incomplete and absentee ballots cast by voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal 1986 law that grants some U.S. citizens living overseas the right to vote. Before the election, the Republican National Committee tried but failed to block certain overseas ballots from being counted.
On X, Riggs said Tuesday that Griffin was “taking a tired page from the playbook of previous failed candidates.”
“He’s filed more than 300 protests to challenge 60,000 ballots across NC, in an attempt to disenfranchise voters,” she said. “My goal has always been to ensure that every voter’s voice is heard.”
On Monday, Griffin sued NCSBE over requests he made to the board for voting-related data. Griffin wanted the board to send him lists of “conflict voters” (voters suspected of casting a ballot in person and via absentee). He also asked for lists of how many voters have felony convictions. A board spokesman said the complaint was “unnecessary.”
Recounts began Nov. 20 and will be completed by Nov. 27, according to a Nov. 15 memo Executive Director Karen Brison Bell sent to county elections boards. Recounts are open to the public, the memo stated, and “any person may attend the recount,” including the candidates and the media. An NCSBE meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.