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A federal appeals court will hear a case over whether to throw out 60,000 North Carolina voters’ 2024 ballots — a positive development for Democrats who were hoping the case would stay in federal court as they seek to win the last unresolved race in the state, a seat on the state Supreme Court.
The challenge over the ballots was filed by the losing candidate for the high-court seat, Republican Jefferson Griffin, who says those people should never have been allowed to vote in the first place.
Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs appears to have won the race, with 734 more votes than Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals. Griffin has challenged the eligibility of 60,000 voters, saying he believes he will end up the winner if a court agrees to throw out their ballots.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Friday scheduled oral arguments in Griffin’s lawsuit for Jan. 27.
All parties have been asking for a quick resolution to the case, which has prevented the November election for the Supreme Court seat from being officially ruled in favor of one candidate or the other. A Jan. 27 oral argument in federal court means it’s possible there’s a ruling before mid-February, when the North Carolina Supreme Court has its first oral arguments of the new term.
Griffin has wanted the case to proceed in state courts — specifically the state Supreme Court, where his fellow Republicans control a majority. The news Friday that the 4th Circuit will take the case is what Riggs and fellow Democrats had wanted. That federal appeals court has already ruled against a lawsuit highly similar to the one Griffin is bringing now, brought by the state Republican Party during the 2024 elections, involving all the same voters.
However, there’s also still a chance the state Supreme Court could hear the case as well. Friday’s order from the federal appellate court didn’t order the state Supreme Court to stop its own work on the lawsuit; the state-level schedule calls for motions to be filed this month in time for it to potentially be heard in February. If the state and federal courts reach different conclusions on whether to reject the ballots, it could lead to further legal battles to determine which court is right.
Griffin and fellow Republicans say they don’t believe the state can be 100% sure any of the challenged voters — who include both of Riggs’ parents — are who they say the are.
“The people of North Carolina are ready to finally see this process brought to a conclusion and the laws our state faithfully followed,” North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons said in a statement this week. “Judge Griffin is fighting to ensure election integrity and resolution of these issues in a fair manner.”
Riggs and others have heavily criticized Griffin as trying to steal an election he lost by asking a court to change the rules for voting after the election has ended, and then punish voters for not having followed those rules.
“If a court were to overturn or invalidate the election based on new rules created after the fact, no North Carolina voter could ever feel confidence again when they walk out of the voting booth that their vote is going to count,” Riggs’ campaign manager, Embry Owen, told WRAL Friday. “The potential consequences for our democracy are that stark.”
Until now, the lawsuit has ping-ponged back and forth. Griffin originally filed in state court, but then it got kicked up to federal court, but then a judge sent it back to state court, and now it’s back in federal court.
