WRAL:

State elections officials on Wednesday denied efforts by the North Carolina Republican Party to throw out tens of thousands of ballots cast by voters in this year’s elections.

The GOP had launched its protests to aid its party’s trailing candidate in a still-uncalled race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court — the latest step in one of the election cycle’s closest, most drawn-out contests.

The race might still not be over, however. Republicans can now appeal the board’s decision in state court, but they have more than a week to decide whether to do so. The elections board still has not formally called the race, or three other state legislative races that could be affected by these protests, since there’s still the potential for further legal battles.

In the Supreme Court race, Republican Jefferson Griffin trails Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs by fewer than 800 votes, two recounts have found; the latest results were announced by state officials on Tuesday.

The results have been prevented from being made official, however, as Griffin’s campaign and allies seek to have officials throw out more than 60,000 ballots cast in this year’s elections, based on what GOP leaders claim are instances of fraud or irregularities.

Just before casting the deciding vote to throw out that claim, State Board of Elections Chairman Alan Hirsch called the GOP effort an affront to democracy itself.

“The idea that someone could have been registered to vote, came to vote — and then had their vote discarded — is anathema to the democratic system and simply cannot be tolerated,” he said. “And so therefore I’m going to vote to deny the protest.”

The five-member elections board has a Democratic majority: Three Democrats and two Republicans. Wednesday’s votes to deny the efforts to throw out the ballot came in four separate votes. One of the votes, concerning a small number of ballots cast by people living overseas, was unanimous. The rest came down along party lines….