RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina State Board of Elections has decided to dismiss numerous formal challenges from several Republican candidates who narrowly lost their elections last month, which involved questioning over 60,000 ballots cast this fall.
The board’s ruling favored the Democratic candidates, including those in contests for a state Supreme Court position and a significant seat in the General Assembly. These matters are now anticipated to be addressed in the courts.
The board rejected the protests from GOP Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, who, following a recent statewide machine recount, found himself trailing Associate Justice Allison Riggs by a margin of 734 votes, from a total exceeding 5.5 million ballots cast. Subsequent recounts were not ordered after a partial hand recount conducted on Tuesday indicated that Griffin could not catch up with Riggs.
Riggs is one of two Democrats serving on the seven-member court, which has become a contentious political arena in North Carolina, particularly concerning disputes over redistricting, photo voter identification laws, and other voting rights issues.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, the board reviewed protests filed by Griffin, who is currently a Court of Appeals judge, as well as three other candidates from the General Assembly, focusing on multiple types of voting.
These voting categories included cases involving individuals with voter registration records missing a driver’s license or including partial Social Security numbers, ballots cast by overseas voters who never lived in the U.S. but had parents considered North Carolina residents, and military or overseas voters who did not provide photo identification with their ballots.
The board is comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans, and in three of the four dismissal votes, the outcomes were along party lines with a 3-2 tally, while the vote on the final motion was unanimous.
Riggs’ campaign has asserted her victory and called for Griffin to concede without delay. After the meeting, Riggs shared that her parents were among the voters whose ballots were being challenged, stating, “I can personally attest they are in fact lawful votes.”
Griffin did not respond immediately to requests for comments regarding the board’s decisions. Meanwhile, Jason Simmons, the State Republican Party Chairman, expressed in a news release that the “board’s continued efforts to engineer political outcomes for Democrats is shameful” and hinted at possible appeals in the future.
Another candidate involved in the protests is GOP Rep. Frank Sossamon, who is trailing behind Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn. A win for Cohn would leave Republicans just one seat short of securing a veto-proof majority for the upcoming two-year session of the General Assembly.
The board had the option to mandate corrective measures for ballot counts, initiate additional recounts, or even call for new elections if it found that election law violations or irregularities cast doubt on the results of the contested elections.
Many protests lodged by Griffin and legislative candidates are still under review by county boards.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, legal representatives for Riggs and other Democrats urged the board to dismiss the protests, characterizing them as an unlawful attempt to modify election rules after ballots had been cast and counted, emphasizing that such actions are inconsistent with protest regulations.
“The voters that protesters are challenging here today unquestionably are eligible voters,” stated Will Robertson, an attorney representing three Democratic legislative candidates and the state Democratic Party. He further articulated that these protests not only lack merit but also undermine democracy and the rule of law in North Carolina.
Attorneys representing Griffin invoked the state constitution, indicating that elections boards should not count ballots from individuals who have never resided in North Carolina. They contended that the state board made an error by creating voter registration forms that failed to clarify that applicants need to provide one of the required identifying numbers.
“We filed these protests because we believe the winners of these elections should be determined by eligible voters and only by eligible voters,” argued Craig Schauer, a lawyer for Griffin and GOP legislative candidates.
Aside from the core issues of the protests, Democratic board members also dismissed the challenges based on the lack of proper legal notice given to voters regarding the challenges to their ballots.
Griffin mailed postcards to voters or “current residents” asserting that “your vote may be affected” by a protest, as per legal documentation and evidence. It also included a QR code for additional information. Democrats claimed that recipients might have discarded the postcard or mistaken it for junk mail.
These decisions from the state board emerged just days after the North Carolina Democratic Party initiated a federal lawsuit to prevent the State Board of Elections from invalidating any of the contested ballots.
On election night, Griffin initially had a lead of about 10,000 votes. However, that lead diminished and ultimately shifted to Riggs as provisional and absentee ballots were added to the overall vote count.
