A three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals heard arguments Friday morning in the ongoing dispute over who won a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court in the election nearly five months ago.
Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin trails Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs by 734 votes after two recounts.
Griffin is seeking to throw out more than 60,000 ballots — mostly because, he says, the registrations lack required information, such as the last four digits of a voter’s Social Security number. He’s also challenging some overseas and military voters who didn’t submit a photo ID when casting their ballots.
Riggs and Democrats argue the voters did nothing wrong and that Griffin is trying to change the rules of the election after he lost.
The panel has two Republicans and one Democrat.
One of the Republicans on the panel, Judge Fred Gore, appeared sympathetic to Griffin’s argument.
“And so I’m troubled by that,” Gore said about the incomplete registrations. “And the fact that we haven’t been able to get it right up until this point. I see why we have this challenge. I’m talking about the fact that there are a certain number of ballots and voters who don’t have proper identification is troubling to me.”
Democratic Judge Tobias Hampson was skeptical. One reason: Griffin is not contesting the ballots of voters with incomplete registrations who voted on Election Day, because — unlike mail ballots and those cast during early voting, those can’t be retrieved.
“How is it not a severe burden to voters if you aren’t challenging in-person voting?” he said. “You are challenging absentee ballots in certain counties. How does it not impose a significant burden across North Carolina, where we are only looking at certain ballots?”
The arguments lasted more than 90 minutes.
A Wake County Superior Court Judge in early February rejected Griffin’s effort to discard the ballots.
The case will likely be settled by the state Supreme Court, and it could return to federal court. If it reaches the state’s highest court, Republicans would hold a 5-1 majority. Riggs has recused herself from the case.
At one point, Gore questioned whether the panel could send the issue back to the state Board of Elections, which rejected Griffin’s protest in December. The board could shift to Republican control this summer because of a new state law that transfers the board to the auditor’s office.
A version of this news analysis originally appeared in the Inside Politics newsletter, out Fridays. Sign up here to get it first to your inbox.
