Have questions about NC’s contested Supreme Court election? We’ve got answers
Over two months since Election Day, North Carolina remains without an official winner in the race for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
Though Democrat Allison Riggs leads by 734 votes following two recounts of the results, her opponent, Republican Jefferson Griffin, has challenged the validity of over 60,000 ballots cast in the race.
The case, which has bounced between state and federal courts, grows more complicated by the day. And the tens of thousands of voters caught up in the turmoil have many questions about how the race got here and what resolution may be coming.
We’ve compiled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the race below. We’ve also put together a timeline of the battle, which you can find on newsobserver.com.
Why is Griffin challenging 60,000 ballots?
Following his apparent loss to Riggs, Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party filed hundreds of election protests statewide arguing that over 60,000 ballots were cast by ineligible voters.
Some of his allegations made factual arguments, such as that the voter in question cast an early ballot, but died before Election Day — invalidating their vote.
However, the vast majority of Griffin’s challenges relied on legal theories put forward by Republican lawyers that have so far been rejected by state and federal courts.
The challenge affecting the most voters is Griffin’s argument that voters who do not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number attached to their voter registration should not have been eligible to vote.
That argument was partially rejected by a federal judge appointed by President-elect Donald Trump in a different case earlier this year which the Republican National Committee sought to purge the state’s voter rolls of 225,000 voters.
The State Board of Elections, which dismissed Griffin’s protests, noted that there are a variety of reasons those numbers may not appear on a voter’s registration — many of which are not the fault of the voter.
It could be a clerical error from the county elections board that processed the registration application, or it could be a match issue with the Social Security national database.
Griffin’s other legal challenges revolve around military and overseas voters. He is specifically contesting a state law, which has been in place since 2011, that allows the adult children of North Carolina residents living abroad to participate in the state’s elections — even if they themselves have never lived in the state.
Where does the case stand now?
As of Feb. 11, Griffin’s challenges are before the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
On Jan. 7, the Supreme Court issued an order blocking the state from certifying a winner in the election while Griffin’s legal battles play out.
Justice Richard Dietz, a Republican, dissented from his conservative colleagues, writing that such a decision “invites incredible mischief.”
Later that month, the Supreme Court ruled that Griffin had erred by bringing his case directly to the high court — since state law mandates that such appeals begin in Wake County Superior Court. They sent the case down to the lower court, but left in place the order blocking certification.
Meanwhile, Riggs and the State Board of Elections sought to have federal courts take jurisdiction over the case. U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers declined to take up the case and the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed his decision on appeal.
However, the 4th Circuit instructed Myers to retain jurisdiction over any federal issues that may not be resolved after state courts take up the case.
Griffin’s challenges then began in Wake County Superior Court, where a judge ruled against him, finding that the board was correct to dismiss his protests. He quickly appealed that ruling to the Court of Appeals.
Why the argument about whether the case should be in state or federal court?
Riggs and the State Board of Elections have argued since the beginning that the case belongs in federal court because Griffin’s claims implicate federal law.
Namely, they argue that the case revolves around the national Help America Vote Act, which sets out voter registration requirements.
Griffin, however, argues that his claims implicate the North Carolina state constitution as well as state law and should therefore remain in state court.
The North Carolina Supreme Court has a 5 to 2 Republican majority.
The 4th Circuit has 12 judges who were nominated by Democratic presidents and six judges who were nominated by Republican presidents. Another judge on the court was initially installed by President Bill Clinton and then was renominated by President George W. Bush.
How can I tell if my vote is being challenged?
Griffin has only challenged voters who cast an absentee ballot or voted early. If you voted in-person on Election Day, your vote has not been challenged.
Any voters included in the challenges should have received a notice in the mail from the North Carolina Republican Party, which includes a link to the protests.
If you do not have the notice, you can still find the information online.
All of Griffin’s protests are housed on the State Board of Elections’ website, but the state has not compiled a combined, comprehensive list with names of all the challenged voters.
Instead, the protests are organized by county and the reason for the challenge. To find out if you are included in the challenges, first navigate to this website: https://dl.ncsbe.gov/?prefix=Legal/Nov%202024%20Protests/Griffin/
From there, locate the links with your home county in the name. You’ll likely see several of them. Open each link and scroll down to the spreadsheet with the list of names. Here, you can check to see if you’ve been included in the protest.
To easily find your name, hit ctrl+f (or command+f on a Mac) on your keyboard and then type in your name.
Terry Mahaffey, a member of the Apex Town Council who has criticized Griffin’s challenges, has also created a searchable online tool to help voters determine if they are on the list. That can be found at ccnc.me/GriffinList
If my vote is being challenged, can I fix any problems with my registration?
If you’re concerned that your voter registration may be inaccurate or incomplete, you can contact your county board of elections and ask if they need any further information.
However, any potential changes you make may not impact the case at hand — at least not at this point.
Griffin argues that the voters in question were ineligible at the time they cast their vote. Any changes made past then may not remedy the challenge.
However, all of this largely depends on what resolution a court ultimately decides on in the case.
Hypothetically, a court could order a statewide “cure period” in which the challenged voters have an opportunity to present identifying documents to election officials in order to secure their vote. Griffin’s lawyers have floated this idea in legal proceedings.
However, this would likely be a massive and costly endeavor that could prompt further legal challenges.
A court could hypothetically order a new special election for the seat as well, though Griffin has not requested this.
I thought our votes were supposed to be secret. How could they find my ballot?
A voter’s vote will always remain secret, but election workers can track down some ballots in scenarios such as this. Absentee ballots or ballots cast during early voting are retrievable — but ballots cast on Election Day are not.
Griffin has only challenged absentee ballots or ballots cast during early voting, so election officials would technically be capable of finding those ballots if ordered to do so by a court.
However, this could prompt further legal challenges, as advocates could argue that this action unfairly treats voters differently based on the method they chose to vote.
Would throwing out votes in the Supreme Court election affect other races?
Invalidating this many votes after an election would be an unprecedented decision, so it is not clear exactly how it would play out if a court chose to do so.
However, the Supreme Court race is the only contest left in North Carolina in which a certificate of election has not been issued.
That means every other 2024 race already has an official winner determined by the state who has taken office.
Griffin himself has argued that if the state were to certify Riggs as the winner, it would moot all of his legal challenges.
For those reasons, it is unlikely that a court’s decision could affect any races other than the Supreme Court election.
When can we expect a final decision?
The case could go all the way to the state Supreme Court, which may take months.
And the federal courts could extend the timeline even further if they once again take up the case.
Have a question you don’t see answered? Send us an email at dome@newsobserver.com and we’ll do our best to address it.
This story was originally published January 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Have questions about NC’s contested Supreme Court election? We’ve got answers."
