Days after Republicans on the state Supreme Court created a path for Jefferson Griffin to overturn his 2024 loss to incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs, the Democratic-controlled State Board of Elections significantly narrowed it. …
On April 15, the elections board provided its answer. In a filing in federal court, the board said the state Supreme Court’s decision left up in the air only 1,675 votes—1,409 overseas and military votes from Guilford County, as well as the ballots of up to 266 “never residents.” That’s far fewer than the 5,509 military and overseas ballots Griffin asked to disqualify.
Griffin, a Republican judge on the Court of Appeals, trails Riggs by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast in the state Supreme Court race.
Griffin attempted to challenge overseas votes from four Democratic-leaning counties. But he only completed the protest for Guilford County ahead of the state’s deadline. Later, Griffin tried to supplement that protest with challenges to overseas voters in Durham, Forsyth, and Buncombe counties, complaining that officials in those counties didn’t provide him with the names of voters to target in time.
This week, the elections board said the additional protests came too late to count. The board’s determination complicates Griffin’s math.
If all 1,675 ballots are discarded, Griffin would win if those voters backed Riggs by a 72-28 margin. That’s a steep climb, though perhaps not unthinkable. Riggs won Guilford County 62-38. She also likely won a large majority of “never residents.” According to data provided by political scientists Michael Bitzer of Catawba College and Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University, “never resident” voters are overwhelmingly young and registered as Democrats or unaffiliated.
However, not all of them will be disqualified. As The Assembly reported on Sunday, some of the “never residents” have previously lived and voted in North Carolina. The elections board told the federal court they “should be removed from the list of affected voters.” The board said it plans to give other alleged “never residents” 30 days to submit an affidavit “stating that they have resided in the county and identifying their prior residence address.” If they do, their votes will count, the board said.
Overseas and military voters will also have 30 days to submit a photo ID or an exception form. They’ll be able to submit their documents through the online portal that most of them used to vote. The elections board told the court that voters won’t be mailed notices telling them to provide IDs—meaning the 30-day clock won’t start—until the portal is reconfigured to accept them. That process shouldn’t take long, the board said.
In the meantime, the Riggs campaign and the state Democratic Party will likely mount a full-court press to validate as many votes as possible. The more they lock down, the narrower Griffin’s path becomes.
The elections board might not have the last word, of course. Griffin immediately asked the Court of Appeals to intervene. He argued that overseas and military voters from six Democratic-leaning counties—Guilford, Forsyth, Durham, and Buncombe, as well as New Hanover and Cumberland, whose county elections boards never provided the voter names he asked for—must provide IDs or have their ballots discarded. He also argued that at least 516 “never residents,” not just the 266 he initially challenged, should have their votes purged by the Court of Appeals’ ruling, and said the elections board’s proposed cure process for these votes defied the court’s order.