Griffin Challenges 60,000 Ballots in Tight North Carolina Supreme Court Race

Attorneys for the state elections board and Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin have agreed to ask a federal judge to schedule a hearing early next month. The case is about Griffin’s attempt to throw out more than 60,000 ballots in his tight race against Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs.

After a statewide machine recount and a partial hand recount of ballots in North Carolina, Griffin is trailing Riggs by over 700 votes. Griffin, who is a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, claims the ballots he’s challenging are invalid due to issues like incomplete voter registrations.

Earlier this month, the state elections board, which has a Democratic majority, rejected most of Griffin’s claims, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Griffin then appealed directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court, skipping the usual process of going through lower courts.

Before the state Supreme Court could rule on Griffin’s appeal to stop the election results from being certified, attorneys for the state elections board moved the case to federal court. Now, U.S. District Court Judge Richard E. Myers II is handling the case. Last week, Judge Myers denied Griffin’s request to temporarily stop the election results from being certified.

Judge Myers has dealt with similar cases before. In October, he dismissed a Republican Party effort to challenge over 225,000 voter registrations for similar reasons as Griffin’s claims.

Griffin’s lawyers have asked Judge Myers to hold a hearing about blocking the election certification on either January 7 or January 8. Some of Griffin’s challenges are still being reviewed by the state elections board, which is expected to make a final decision by this Friday.

The elections board might certify the Supreme Court race on January 10. To prevent this, Griffin is asking Judge Myers to issue a ruling by January 9 to stop the certification from going forward while the case is still being decided.