North Carolina judges side with Republican colleague in close Supreme Court race

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court sided Friday with the trailing Republican candidate in an extremely close state Supreme Court election, a ruling that could flip the result of the nation’s only 2024 race that is still undecided.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruled that ballots — likely tens of thousands of them — were wrongly allowed in the tally, and it gave some of those voters about three weeks to provide additional information or see the ballots get removed. The disputed ballots are believed to favor Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs, who, after two recounts, held a 734-vote lead over Republican Jefferson Griffin in their race, which saw over 5.5 million ballots cast.

The judges on Friday found that the State Board of Elections got it wrong in December when it dismissed Griffin’s election protests. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Griffin’s postelection protests challenged over 65,000 ballots in three different categories. Griffin currently serves on the Court of Appeals and had recused himself from deliberations within the court, where some of his colleagues ruled favoring him.

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By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Updated 1:57 PM EDT, April 4, 2025



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-election-2024-griffin-riggs-judges-fe51ca7bb095b9dcb305030220e69606