The North Carolina state Board of Elections voted Wednesday to reject a Republican challenge to throw out 60,000 ballots in a state Supreme Court race that the Democratic incumbent leads by just over 700 votes.
The board, where Democrats have a 3-2 edge, could now move to certify the victory by Democrat Allison Riggs, eliminating a major hurdle for the party in the contested race.
NBC News has not yet projected a winner in the race.
Riggs, who was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2023, emerged from Election Day with a narrow lead over Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, triggering two recounts.
A full machine recount showed Riggs leading Griffin by 734 votes. A second, partial hand recount of the race increased Riggs’ lead marginally, but that total is not considered official by North Carolina’s elections board. More than 5.5 million ballots were cast in the race.
Following Election Day, Griffin’s team filed hundreds of legal challenges across all of North Carolina’s 100 counties, alleging that nearly 60,000 people voted illegally. Many of the allegations centered around people who Griffin’s lawyers claimed didn’t have a driver’s license number or Social Security number on file in their voter registration records.
“These voters were not eligible to cast a ballot without first lawfully registering,” attorneys for Griffin’s campaign wrote in the first brief to North Carolina’s election board.
The protests from Griffin pertained to votes that fall into three categories.
The vast majority of the votes in question are ones that were cast by voters whose registration records lack required information, Republicans claimed.
At the center of that category is the fact that voter registration applications approved by legislators 20 years ago were intended to require people to note their driver’s license or Social Security numbers. The form, however, didn’t include that requirement, and in subsequent years, tens of thousands of voters didn’t include them on it. In addition, some voters likely registered before the 2004 law was passed.
The other two categories of votes Republicans contested related to overseas voters.
The Board of Elections held consecutive votes on all three categories Wednesday. The first vote, on the matter regarding driver’s license and Social Security numbers, and the second vote on a matter related to overseas voters who haven’t lived in North Carolina, came along party lines. A third vote on an issue related specifically to overseas voters who failed to provide photo identification with their ballots, was rejected unanimously.
Griffin or the North Carolina Republican Party could appeal the decision, which would insert the case into the state court system. If that occurs, the case could eventually make its way to the state Supreme Court.
In a statement, North Carolina GOP Chairman Jason Simmons criticized the ruling and said the party would “review the board’s decision and reserve the right to any future actions to protect the integrity of our elections.”
The North Carolina Democratic Party filed a suit in federal court on Friday seeking to ensure all ballots in the race were counted. The suit, which effectively sought to preempt a potential elections board ruling against Riggs, pointed out that the federal law does not allow states to toss out ballots because voter registration papers are missing a driver’s license number or a Social Security number.
Ahead of the election, Republicans had filed a suit seeking to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls who had the same information missing in their registration records. The case, filed in a federal court, was dismissed.
Republicans currently have a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court. A Riggs victory would maintain that.
Joining in the challenge to the North Carolina elections board board was the Republican candidate in a close state House race that will determine whether the GOP maintains its supermajority in the chamber.
Democrat Bryan Cohn leads Republican state Rep. Frank Sossamon by fewer than 300 votes, but The Associated Press hasn’t projected a winner in the race. A Cohn victory would officially end the GOP’s supermajority in the state House, and the power to override the governor’s veto that comes with it.
Wednesday’s hearing came as another pivotal issue was being considered by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Democrats currently control the North Carolina board of elections. Under current law, the governor gets to appoint all five members: Three from the governor’s party and two from the opposition party.
But Republican lawmakers have been working to pass a bill that, among other things, strips the governor of that power. State Republicans are expected to vote on overriding a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on that bill later Wednesday.
