- Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin is taking his challenges against 65,000 ballots cast in the Nov. 5 election to North Carolina's second-highest court.
- Griffin filed notices of appeal Monday in three separate lawsuits tied to the ballot challenges.
- The notices arrived three days after Wake County Superior Court Judge William Pittman rejected all three categories of ballot challenge Griffin is pursuing in his race against Democrat Allison Riggs.
Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin filed notices of appeal Monday in all three lawsuits connected to his challenges of more than 65,000 ballots cast in his election against Democrat Allison Riggs.
Those appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals arrived three days after Wake County Superior Court Judge William Pittman rejected three different categories of ballot challenges Griffin is pursuing.
Pittman issued his rulings Friday afternoon, hours after holding a hearing attended by Griffin and Riggs. One-page orders in each case upheld the State Board of Elections’ December decision rejecting three different groups of ballot protests.
“The Court concludes as a matter of law that the Board’s decision was not in violation of constitutional provisions, was not in excess of statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency, was made upon lawful procedure, and was not affected by other error of law,” Pittman wrote.
Riggs leads Griffin by 734 votes out of 5.5 million ballots cast statewide in the election ending Nov. 5. A stay issued by the state Supreme Court on Jan. 7 has blocked the elections board from certifying Riggs as the winner.
An appeal in the case could eventually return to the state’s highest court, which voted 4-2 last month to grant the stay. Four state Supreme Court Republicans supported the stay. Republican Justice Richard Dietz and Democratic Justice Anita Earls voted against the stay. Riggs, an appointed incumbent, took no part in the decision.
Friday’s hearing took place after the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant requests from Riggs and the elections board to seek to have the case returned to federal court. A unanimous 4th Circuit panel agreed Tuesday that US Chief District Judge Richard Myers had the authority to abstain from hearing the case.
Yet the 4th Circuit ruling opened the door for the case’s possible return to federal court. Citing a US Supreme Court precedent in a case called Pullman, appellate judges ruled that Myers must address any federal legal issues that remain once state courts have ruled on all state law issues in Griffin’s ballot challenges.
Both Riggs and the elections board filed Thursday a notice of an “England reservation.” That legal maneuver signaled their intent to return the case to Myers’ court if state courts rule against the elections board and Riggs.
Griffin is pursuing three categories of ballot challenges. The largest category of more than 60,000 ballots involves voters whose registration records appear to lack a required driver’s license number or last four digits of a Social Security number. Griffin also challenges more than 5,500 ballots from overseas voters who provided no photo identification. He targets 267 “never residents,” people permitted to cast ballots in North Carolina elections despite never living in the state.
Republicans outnumber Democrats, 5-2, on the state Supreme Court. A Riggs victory would lead to no change in the partisan split. A win for Griffin would boost Republicans’ majority to 6-1.
Riggs will continue to serve on the state high court when it returns to work Tuesday hearing oral arguments in different legal disputes. Griffin will continue to serve in his role as a state Appeals Court judge as the case continues.