It was briefly stopped by the North Carolina Supreme Court on Monday. A lower court’s decision would have meant that more than 65,000 votes cast in the disputed 2024 state Supreme Court race would have had to be counted and checked.
A two-sentence order from the state Supreme Court stops a decision made on Friday from taking effect so that the court can look over an appeal from the Democratic candidate in the race.
This week’s decision is the latest twist in a long and winding story that began with a close race in November.
Allison Riggs, a Democratic state Supreme Court judge who was named to the bench in 2023, came out on top over Jefferson Griffin, a Republican state appeals court judge, in the results of the election after Election Day. This led to a series of recounts.
There was a full machine recount and a partial hand recount of the race. Both showed that Griffin lost to Riggs by 734 votes. There were more than 5.5 million votes in the race. The Decision Desk at NBC News has not yet declared the winner.
Griffin’s team went to court all over the state after the recalls and said that more than 65,000 people had voted illegally. Many of the claims were made against people whose voter registration records Griffin’s lawyers said did not have driver’s licenses or Social Security numbers. Their claims also involved overseas voters who had never lived in North Carolina and overseas voters who didn’t bring photo ID with them when they cast their votes.
Sophie Mestas, a spokeswoman for Riggs’s campaign, praised the order.
“We’re glad the Supreme Court agreed to hold off on this badly thought-out order that could keep thousands of eligible voters from voting.” “This appeal will not go away, and we are dedicated to keeping power with the people, not with politicians,” Mestas wrote in an email.
“Everyone was expecting” the order, Griffin spokesman Paul Shumaker wrote in an email. He also said that it was “part of the process.”
There has been a case in both federal and state courts for months about whether those votes should be recorded.
The decision is now in the hands of the state courts because of a series of court decisions and changes earlier this year. However, Riggs’ campaign hasn’t ruled out taking legal action that could bring the case back to the federal courts.
Small changes to the number of votes cast could change the result of the race.
The decision from Monday, which came from the same court that has a seat on the queue in the case, briefly stops the North Carolina Court of Appeals’ decision from Friday.
In that decision, a three-judge court with a Republican majority gave the North Carolina State Board of Elections 15 business days to get the necessary proof of identity for the thousands of voters whose eligibility was questioned by Griffin’s campaign and its lawyers. This would be used to confirm those votes. The court said that voters who don’t follow through would not have their vote recorded.
The short order from Monday didn’t say if the Supreme Court would look at Griffin’s whole case or just Riggs’ appeal, which had asked the court to stop the appeals court’s decision on Friday.
At the moment, Republicans control the North Carolina Supreme Court by a vote of 5-2. Riggs has taken a step back from the case.
Griffin is on the state appeals court, but he stayed out of the case.
