The only statewide race in North Carolina that hasn’t been certified is the Supreme Court race between current Justice Allison Riggs (D) and her Republican opponent, Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin (R).
Griffin was ahead the morning after Election Day by around 10,000 votes. But over what originally was slated to be a 10-day canvassing process, his lead was chipped away as overseas/military absentee ballots were counted and provisionals were researched by county boards of election to determine voter eligibility.
Friday, November 15th was supposed to be the deadline for the counties to certify their totals. But questions were raised after Wake County, the most populous county in the state and one that is Democrat-heavy, didn’t add their provisional numbers to their totals until around 8 pm that night and with numbers that just so happened to put Riggs over Griffin for the first time by about 150 votes.
To some, it gave off the appearance of Wake waiting to see how many votes Riggs needed to get ahead. Complicating matters was the State Board of Elections announcing about an hour before the Wake update that several counties including one semi-big blue county would not be done canvassing by the end of the day and would resume Monday.
Needless to say, business picked up quite a bit in the Old North State this past week, with Griffin and the NC GOP first filing a lawsuit on Monday demanding compliance with state law and claiming the State Board of Elections failed to provide them with documents and information in a timely manner ahead of the deadline to call for a recount, which was Tuesday 11/19 at 5 pm.
Griffin did call for a recount on Tuesday and at the time of his request, he was down by 623 votes to Riggs. The next day, a full 15 days after Election Day and five days after the original deadline to certify results, Riggs was up by 722.
On Wednesday and as the recount got underway, Griffin filed over 300 election protests on 60,000+ ballots, questioning their validity:
“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process. Protecting election integrity is not just an option—it’s our duty,” Griffin stated. “These protests are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.”The protests highlight specific irregularities and discrepancies in the handling and counting of ballots, raising concerns about adherence to established election laws. These challenges are part of a lawful and transparent process designed to uphold voter confidence in the system.
The list of protests included voters who Griffin’s campaign says were deceased prior to election day, were felons still serving their sentences, or non-registered voters. While those protests will be handled at the county board of elections level, others – like those with incomplete voter registration info or overseas voters who allegedly provided no ID will be handled by the State Board of Elections, according to Civitas Center of Public Integrity Director Andy Jackson.
Just randomly checking through some of the protests, there was one for Mecklenburg County referencing voters who allegedly passed away before Election Day (those votes aren’t supposed to count, per NC election law). On that list were 28 voters. The Johnston County list had 10 voters who allegedly were deceased.
By my calculations, if Griffin is successful by somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.2 percent of the 60,000 vote challenges, he could move ahead assuming the recount itself (click here for periodic numbers updates on the recount) doesn’t take any votes away from him.
He certainly has some firepower behind him. In addition to his own attorneys, not only has the state GOP “committed resources and legal expertise” to Griffin’s election fight, but the RNC legal teams are already on the ground in North Carolina, per Chairman Michael Whatley:
The RNC and @NCGOP have joined Jefferson Griffin in filing hundreds of protests over 60,000 ballots that should not have been counted in the NC Supreme Court race. Our attorneys are on the ground in-state.The NC State Board of Elections failed to administer this election fairly. They have been inconsistent, uncooperative, and non-transparent throughout this process — but we will fight them every step of the way.We will share more updates as they become available.
Whatley was born and raised in North Carolina and previously was the state party chairman, so he knows the lay of the land here and how the North Carolina Democratic machine (and their legal teams) operate. So things should get very interesting here very fast.
A win from Griffin would make the state’s court 6-1 GOP. A win from Riggs would keep it 5-2 GOP, giving Democrats hope of flipping the court back in their favor in 2028, where there will be three North Carolina Supreme Court races featuring Republican incumbents.
We’ll keep you posted on developments.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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