A federal judge has ordered the North Carolina Election Commission to begin implementing the state Supreme Court decision in the country’s last unresolved 2024 election.
The North Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision Friday that partially overturned the ruling a week ago by a panel of mid-level appeals courts in favor of Republican Jefferson Griffin. Griffin is tracking Democrat Associate Judge Allison Riggs with a thin razor margin of 734 votes out of the more than 5.5 million cast cast last fall in the state’s Supreme Court seat election. Griffin officially protested over 65,000 votes covering three categories.
The biggest category of voters challenged (approximately 60,000) included votes cast last fall by people who have been registered to vote since 2004, but their records lack the last four digits of their driver’s license number or Social Security number.
A general opinion on Friday said it was wrong by the appeals court declaring that these votes should not be counted. The opinion said the responsibility rests on the state election commission for years of failure to properly gather these numerical identifiers, not the voters. These voters ultimately proved their identity by adhering to the state’s new Photo ID Act. A long-standing legal precedent says such mistakes by election officials will not invalidate the vote.
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Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for the NC Supreme Court, will hear testimony in Wake County Superior Court on Friday, February 7, 2025 (News & Observers via Robert Willett/Application, Files)
The state Election Commission said in a statement Monday that it will “provide detailed instructions to affected counties and voters on how to comply with the decision” “as soon as possible.”
“The Supreme Court decision has been removed from protest voters that do not include the last four digits of their driver’s license number or Social Security number on their voter registration form (and did not check the box indicating that these numbers are missing) — the largest group of voters who challenged the protest will not need to provide that information to their county commission to secure their county commission to secure their vote for the Supreme Court’s general election.
But the majority of the judicialists – all registered Republicans – hamper the lower court’s decision that additional votes from the other two categories that Griffin contested were incorrectly permitted in the tally. Some of these voters are likely to have the opportunity to submit photo identification or ID exception forms of their choice in the competition, or potentially thousands of people who serve in the military or live abroad, still in the competition, the court’s general order states.
The state Supreme Court has also agreed to completely throw away votes from people who have never lived in North Carolina or the United States.
“However, the Supreme Court’s ruling will require challenging military and international voters who submitted absentee votes to provide a copy of photo identification or photo ID exception form to secure votes for the Supreme Court’s contest count in the 2024 general election,” the Election Commission said Monday. “This decision requires a specific county commission of elections in order for a particular county commission to identify and remove only votes from US citizen voters who have never lived in the United States but have parental ties to North Carolina.”
Riggs and the state election commission, which previously abandoned Griffin’s formal protests of more than 65,000 votes, had previously informed him of plans to return to federal court if necessary if Griffin could sue a violation of the federal election and Voting Rights Act. Riggs’ attorneys filed an appeal late Friday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh to ask the judge to issue an injunction to prevent the state’s court of appeals decision from being made immediately.
Allison Riggs, the Southern Coalition’s Voting Rights for Social Justice, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court after attending a verbal discussion on December 7, 2022 in Moore v. Harper. (Drew Anger/Getty Images)
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US Supreme Court Judge Richard Myers, whose first term was appointed by President Donald Trump, ordered the state Election Commission on Saturday to comply with the Supreme Court’s plan to resolve election disputes. Myers has set the April 15 deadline for the state Election Commission and “provides notice to courts within the scope of their relief efforts, including the number of potentially affected voters and the number of counties that those voted for.”
The judge also submitted an opening brief to the parties until April 20th, and handed it over until April 28th to file the final brief of the case.
Myers ordered the state Supreme Court not to prove the election results as “we are holding up further orders from this court.” It is unclear whether an unresolved vote that can eventually break out of the count could potentially turn the outcome over to Griffin, the current Court of Appeals judge himself. Riggs did not take part in the Supreme Court deliberation as Griffin was not sitting on the three judge panel that controlled him last week.
Meanwhile, Riggs hosted a “guard our votes” rally on Monday in the state capital of Raleigh.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the North Carolina State Capitol on Monday, February 17, 2025, at the North Carolina State Capitol to protest the challenge of Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin with 65,000 votes in the November election. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service byotty Images)
“I will not give up on my fight to protect those who are fighting for us,” said Riggs, whose father and brothers served in the military. “This is a threat to North Carolina voters, foreign service officers and students studying abroad, who are missionaries serving mission fields, and the burden is real and we will do everything we can to ensure the number of votes.”
Republican strategist Paul Shoemaker issued a statement on behalf of Griffin, who said Friday’s ruling “consistent with our demands, and clearly this issue ensures a thorough review stated by the court.”
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“What’s most bothering me is Judge Riggs’ desire to hold interviews and rallies to litigate the case outside the court,” Schumaker said. “Judge Riggs is clearly a judicial activist who believes that judges should enact new laws rather than interpreting the laws enacted by the state legislature.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Daniel Wallace is a news and political reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and to X:@danimwallace.
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