North Carolina top court won't fast-track Republican court candidate's challenge

By Nate Raymond

Jan 23 (Reuters) - The North Carolina Supreme Court has dismissed a request by a Republican judge for a seat on its bench, declining to decide at this time whether over 60,000 ballots should be excluded from the final tally in his bid to unseat the leading Democratic candidate, Justice Allison Riggs.

The Republican-dominated court in a late Wednesday order declined to allow the state's elections board to certify the election results, saying lower courts should first weigh in on the arguments by Judge Jefferson Griffin, a member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals who is trailing Riggs by 734 votes.

Three of the court's five Republican justices in concurring opinions said Griffin's arguments may be valid. But the court held that state law required him to pursue his case first in a trial court rather than going directly to the high court.

While the justices directed the trial court to hear his case "expeditiously," the ruling could mean the victor of the last uncertified statewide election nationally may not be known for months if not longer.

"After all, it is more important to ensure the result is accurate than to hurriedly finalize the process as quickly as possible," Chief Justice Paul Martin Newby wrote in a concurring opinion joined by two fellow Republican justices.

Riggs, who was recused from hearing the case, in a statement on Thursday said that while she agreed with the high court's dismissal of Griffin's case, she was "disappointed that the door has been opened to dragging this out for so long."

"Voters elected me to continue serving on the North Carolina Supreme Court 79 days ago, and my election is the last uncertified race in the country," she said.

Griffin declined to comment.

Riggs has been vying for a full eight-year term following her 2023 appointment to the court by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper to fill a vacancy on the seven-member tribunal, whose justices are elected.

The court has a 5-2 Republican majority. Riggs can continue to serve in her current position until the election dispute is resolved.

In the immediate hours after polls closed on Nov. 5, Griffin was leading Riggs by nearly 10,000 votes. But that lead dwindled away as more ballots were counted, and subsequent recounts confirmed Riggs had secured 734 more votes than Griffin, with over 5.5 million ballots cast in the closely watched race.

Griffin, after pursuing an unsuccessful challenge before the state's elections board, on Dec. 18 filed a case directly with the North Carolina Supreme Court asking it to prevent the counting of ballots, which he claimed run afoul of the state's statutes and constitution.

The bulk of the ballots at issue — 60,273 — were cast by registered voters whose registration records in a state database contain no driver's license numbers or social security numbers, which they must provide when registering.

Griffin's lawyers argued those ballots were cast by people who did not lawfully register to vote, citing a 2004 law requiring voters to provide such identification which he said the board was ignoring.

After a federal judge rejected an attempt by the state election board to have the case sent to federal court, the high court on a 4-2 vote on Jan. 7 blocked the board from certifying Riggs as the election's winner pending further litigation.

The court in Wednesday evening's ruling maintained that stay over the dissent of the court's lone other Democratic member, Justice Anita Earls, who said her Republican colleagues' action signaled their "preferred outcome" and "undermines confidence in our democratic system."

The case is Griffin v. North Carolina Board of Election, North Carolina Supreme Court, No. 320P24.

For Griffin: Troy Shelton of Dowling PLLC

For the North Carolina State Board of Elections: Mary Babb of the North Carolina Department of Justice

For Riggs: Raymond Bennett and Samuel Hartzell of Womble Bond Dickinson

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