Republicans on NC Supreme Court delay certification of judicial election

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday delayed the certification of Democrat Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection to allow for her opponent to present unsubstantiated claims of election malfeasance.

Riggs, an incumbent on the state supreme court, defeated Republican Jefferson Griffin in the Nov. 4 election by less than 800 votes. Griffin has since filed several legal challenges claiming thousands of voters should have their ballots thrown out for having incomplete registrations.

Griffin and his lawyers identified close to 60,000 registrations that did not include a drivers license or Social Security number, which is required under the 2002 Help America Vote Act. It is not uncommon, however, for registrations pre-dating 2002 to lack this data. Some registration forms printed after 2002 also did not require this information.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections said that Griffin’s complaint lacked merit. The board also conducted two recounts, both of which showed Riggs winning. The board was preparing to certify Riggs’ win this week when the court ordered the delay.

The five conservatives on the court supported the delay with one liberal dissenting. Riggs has recused herself from the case.

The court set a vague timeline of “at least two weeks” to make a decision. If they rule in Griffin’s favor, he will likely be declared the winner of the election. It has also been speculated that the court could order an entirely new election take place.

Included in the 60,000 challenged ballots are the votes cast by Riggs’ parents.

North Carolina is no stranger to election turmoil. 

The Republican-controlled legislature has been sued for drawing heavily gerrymandered maps that disenfranchise Democratic voters. U.S. House maps issued in 2023 bisected Democratic cities like Greensboro and Raleigh and grouped them with rural Republican strongholds. 

Had these maps not been enacted, Democrats likely would have won control of U.S. Congress in the 2024 election.

Outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is reportedly considering a U.S. Senate run in 2026, criticized the state supreme court’s ruling on social media.

“Allison Riggs won and the recount confirmed it,” he wrote on Wednesday. “Republicans want to toss thousands of legal votes in the trash because they don’t like the outcome.”