North Carolina Justices Slow-Roll GOP Judge’s Bid to Join Court

The North Carolina Supreme Court rejected a GOP state high court candidate’s demand to expedite his election case against his sitting-Democratic justice rival, potentially empowering a federal court to decide the unprecedented case.

The state high court isn’t the right place to rule on Jefferson Griffin’s claims that more than 60,000 votes should be discarded in the 2024 statewide race he lost to Justice Allison Riggs by under 800 votes, the divided court ruled Wednesday.

The reversal—first accepting Griffin’s challenge then kicking it down—tees up a federal suit in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to potentially decide the matter outside of the state system with a panel weighing claims that tossing the votes would violate the US Constitution and national voting provisions.

Meanwhile, the state high court order blocks the state from confirming Riggs’ victory, and could extend litigation in three Superior Court of Wake County cases, possibly for weeks, while the state elections board and Riggs are scheduled to appear before a federal panel on Jan. 27.

“While I agree with the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to dismiss Judge Griffin’s inappropriate request for a writ of prohibition, I am disappointed that the door has been opened to dragging this out for so long,” Riggs said in a statement.

The unauthored state supreme court order was accompanied by concurrences indicating several of the court’s Republican justices were open to tossing votes that Griffin said were unlawful because voters were registered without driver license numbers or because overseas military voters allegedly failed to provide a photocopy of their IDs with their ballots.

This “case is not about deciding the outcome of an election. It is about preserving the public’s trust and confidence in our elections through the rule of law,” Chief Justice Paul Newby said in his concurrence.

Riggs recused herself. The court’s lone remaining Democrat, Justice Anita Earls, criticized her colleagues for entertaining the case.

“If any losing candidate can make any sort of argument about votes in the election, no matter how frivolous, and automatically receive a court-ordered stay on appeal, preventing the winning candidate from being certified, nothing stops litigious losers from preventing duly elected persons from taking office for months or longer,” Earls said in a dissent.

Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Griffin filed a brief before the Fourth Circuit Wednesday arguing the litigation belongs completely in state court.

The case is Griffin v. N.C. State Bd. of Elections, N.C., No. 320P24, order canceling expedited appeal 1/22/25.