A timeline of NC’s complicated legal battle over the 2024 Supreme Court election
In most cases, elections are cut-and-dry.
A winner is clear on election night and the loser gracefully concedes to their opponent. Weeks later, the state certifies the result and the winner takes office without incident.
That is not what is happening in the race for a seat on North Carolina’s Supreme Court.
Six months after Election Day, the state has still not officially declared a winner and the race has been upended by protracted legal challenges which have ping-ponged between state and federal courts.
Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs leads her Republican opponent, Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, by 734 votes following two recounts.
But Griffin has challenged over 60,000 ballots in the election, arguing that they were cast by ineligible voters.
To make sense of the complicated and lengthy legal battle over this race, we’ve compiled a timeline of events below with links to our prior coverage.
We’ll continue to update this page as new developments emerge.
Aug. 23, 2024: The Republican National Committee and North Carolina Republican Party file a lawsuit seeking to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls who do not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number listed in the state’s database. Griffin will later make the same argument when challenging ballots.
Oct. 17, 2024: U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump, dismisses part of the RNC’s lawsuit, but keeps the case alive.
Nov. 5, 2024: On Election Day, the North Carolina Supreme Court race is too close to call, though Griffin leads by about 10,000 votes toward the end of the night.
Nov. 15, 2024: After all outstanding absentee and provisional ballots are counted, the race flips in Riggs’ favor, putting her ahead by 734 votes.
Nov. 19, 2024: The Republican-controlled state legislature passes a bill giving voters less time to fix issues with their provisional ballots and giving election workers less time to count them.
Nov. 19, 2024: Griffin requests a recount in the Supreme Court race.
Nov. 20, 2024: Griffin files a series of election protests challenging over 60,000 ballots cast in the race.
Nov. 26, 2024: Griffin requests that a Democrat on the State Board of Elections recuse herself from considering his protests because her husband previously served as Riggs’ attorney.
Dec. 3, 2024: The recount of the Supreme Court race is completed and Riggs maintains her 734-vote lead.
Dec. 6, 2024: The North Carolina Democratic Party files a federal lawsuit attempting to have Griffin’s protests thrown out.
Dec. 10, 2024: A News & Observer analysis finds that Black registered voters were twice as likely to have their ballots challenged in Griffin’s protests than white voters.
Dec. 10, 2024: A second recount, this one conducted by hand in a sample of precincts across the state, again affirms Riggs’ lead.
Dec. 11, 2024: The State Board of Elections rejects all of Griffin’s protests in mostly party-line votes. The board also rejects Griffin’s request that one of its members recuse herself.
Dec. 18, 2024: Griffin asks the North Carolina Supreme Court to intervene and prohibit the board from certifying Riggs’ apparent victory. The court has a 5-2 Republican majority.
Dec. 19, 2024: The State Board of Elections moves Griffin’s lawsuit to federal court.
Dec. 31, 2024: The NC GOP and Republican National Committee file a separate lawsuit in state court, called Kivett v. NCSBE, which also attempts to throw out 60,000 ballots, but does not explicitly mention the Supreme Court race.
Jan. 6, 2025: Myers, the federal judge, sends Griffin’s case back to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The State Board of Elections immediately appeals the ruling to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Jan. 7, 2025: The North Carolina Supreme Court issues an order blocking the State Board of Elections from certifying Riggs as the winner while it considers Griffin’s case. Democrat Anita Earls and Republican Richard Dietz dissented from the majority and Riggs recused herself.
Jan. 10, 2025: A judge in Wake County Superior Court denies Republicans’ emergency motion to throw out the contested ballots in the Kivett v. NCSBE case. Later that same day, the 4th Circuit agrees with Riggs’ request to expedite the case and schedules oral arguments for Jan. 27 — two weeks before before the NC Supreme Court sits for its first term.
Jan. 22, 2025: The North Carolina Supreme Court rejects Griffin’s request to fast-track the case, finding that he should have begun the process in Wake County Superior Court. Despite not ruling on the merits of the case, each justice writes an opinion sharing some insight into their views.
Jan. 27, 2025: The 4th Circuit hears arguments on whether the case should ultimately be handled by state or federal courts. The panel of judges do not immediately issue a ruling and spend much of the hearing grappling with complicated appellate procedures.
Feb. 4, 2025: The 4th Circuit sent the case back to state courts, but left open the possibility of federal courts revisiting the dispute later.
Feb. 7, 2025: A Wake County Superior Court judge rules against Griffin, finding that the State Board of Elections was correct to dismiss his protests.
Feb. 10, 2025: Griffin files a notice of appeal of the Superior Court’s decision to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. As a sitting judge on that court, Griffin says he will not participate in any matters related to his case.
Feb. 20, 2025: In a 4-2 decision, the North Carolina Supreme Court rejects the State Board of Elections’ request to fast-track the case by skipping over the Court of Appeals.
March 15, 2025: The Court of Appeals assigns a three-judge panel, consisting of two Republicans and one Democrat, to hear Griffin’s case. The court rejects Riggs’ request that the entire 15-member court hear the case.
March 20, 2025: The News & Observer publishes an interview with NC GOP Chair Jason Simmons to ask why the party is helping to bring the case and what precedent could be created if it is successful.
March 21, 2025: The Court of Appeals hears arguments in Griffin’s case but does not issue a ruling.
April 4, 2025: In a split decision, the Court of Appeals rules in Griffin’s favor but declines to immediately toss all the votes out. Instead, they order a 15-day cure period for most of the challenged voters to prove their eligibility.
April 7, 2025: The North Carolina Supreme Court temporarily halts the 15-day cure period from taking effect while it decides whether to take the case on appeal.
April 11, 2025: The North Carolina Supreme Court rejects Griffin’s largest challenge, but rules some military and overseas ballots must be cured, while a smaller number of ballots will be discarded outright. Riggs appeals to Myers, the federal judge.
April 12, 2025: Myers rules that the 30-day cure period ordered by the Supreme Court can take effect, but that the state must hold off on certifying the election results until he weighs in.
April 15, 2025: The State Board of Elections lays out its plan for conducting the cure period, which would include a far smaller amount of votes than Griffin initially challenged.
April 22, 2025: In a 2-1 decision, the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals grants Riggs’ request to block the cure period from beginning, at least until Myers rules on the merits of the case.
May 5, 2025: Myers rules against Griffin and orders the state to certify Riggs as the winner of the election, though he puts his order on hold for seven days to allow Griffin to appeal.
May 7, 2025: Griffin concedes the race to Riggs, ending over six months of battle and the unprecedented campaign to overturn the election results.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 11:59 AM with the headline "A timeline of NC’s complicated legal battle over the 2024 Supreme Court election."
