NC Supreme Court could now decide who should win the election for a seat on the court
Griffin is seeking to throw away 60,000 votes after incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs seemed to have defeated Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin in the race for a seat at the North Carolina Supreme Court. The same court that he is trying to join could hear his case.
The North Carolina Supreme Court could soon decide who will win an election for its own seat, giving the court’s Republican majorities a chance of expanding their control over the judiciary.
The case was filed in federal court. Judges at different levels of the court have already rejected the legal theory that underlies the lawsuit to alter the state Supreme Court election results for 2024. On Monday, a federal court judge sent the case back to the state Supreme Court.
Multiple recounts confirmed that incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs had held off Republican Challenger Jefferson Griffin in the 2024 elections. Her initial results showed a slight victory of more than 700 ballots — just a fraction of the 5 million+ votes cast. State elections officials are yet to make the win official due to challenges brought by Griffin’s campaign, and the North Carolina Republican Party. Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party are trying to have the ballots of over 60,000 North Carolinians thrown out, mostly because they had registration issues.
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Republicans are concerned about whether officials can verify the identity of voters who don’t have a Social Security or driver’s licence number in a database. Democrats claim that the issue is moot since North Carolina voters were required to present a photo ID card such as a license to vote in 2016. In the event that they did not have a photo ID, they were required to give their Social Security Number. If they didn’t, their votes were never counted.
Republicans used this argument both before and during 2024’s elections to try to prevent affected voters from voting. These legal theories were rejected both by the State Board of Elections and by a federal district judge, as well as by a federal appeals court. The voters were then allowed to vote.
Griffin now says that their ballots must be thrown away after the election. He predicted in court documents that this would propel him to victory, and increase the Republican majority on the Supreme Court’s from a 5-2 advantage to a 6-1.
State vs. federal court
Griffin’s efforts to gain attention after the election were rebuffed by the State Board of Elections. The majority of the board, which is a Democratic majority, deemed his claims unfounded while the Republican members sided with Griffin.
Griffin, who is still a judge at the Court of Appeals during the case, filed five different types of complaints. He also complained about a small number of overseas voters he believes shouldn’t have been allowed to vote. One complaint was rejected by a unanimous vote, while the other complaints were rejected based on a 3-2 party line vote.
According to state law, Griffin would have been required to appeal the decision of the Wake County election board by taking the case all the way through trial. He bypassed the election board and went directly to the Republican Supreme Court in order to get a favorable ruling. Riggs campaign claimed that Griffin had no evidence, and would be exposed in court. Griffin claimed he was trying to hurry things up since the election has already been over for two months.
Federal Judge Richard Myers, in one of the cases that he had previously ruled during the election season, slammed the Republican Party for trying to prevent the voter from voting. The U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit upheld his ruling and added that legal arguments could only be heard by federal courts, not state courts.
Citing this precedent, the State Board of Elections transferred Griffin’s post election lawsuit to federal court. Myers, Donald Trump’s Republican appointee, decided on Monday that the case should not be heard in federal courts and instead go to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
State Board of Elections can still appeal this decision. Riggs could also appeal the decision, as she has intervened since. Riggs will not be able defend her results if the case is heard in state courts. She has already recused her from any possible case involving her election.
Both Riggs’ and the election board’s spokespeople said that they are still reviewing the order, and have no immediate comments.
Political ramifications
If Riggs loses, it will be more difficult for Democrats to regain control of the Supreme Court by 2030, when there will be a U.S. Census and a second round of redistricting.
In 2022, the Democratic majority of the court ruled Republican legislators’ 2020 redistricting plan was unconstitutionally gerrymandered. In 2023, Republicans gained control of the Supreme Court and moved immediately to overturn that ruling. They wanted to allow GOP legislators to gerrymander to gain political advantage. The state courts were not allowed to make decisions on partisan gerrymandering.
This 2023 ruling enabled Republicans to flip 3 of North Carolina’s House of Representatives seats in 2024 — when Republicans won a majority of 220-215 in the U.S. House. In the event that those three seats had not flipped, Democrats control the U.S. House with a margin of 218-217.
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