Republicans on the NC Supreme Court block certification of the Democratic incumbent’s election
Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and her Republican challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin. (Courtesy photos)
At the request of GOP Judge Jefferson Griffin, Republicans on the state Supreme Court have prohibited the state Board of Elections from certifying Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ election.
Riggs, the incumbent, leads Griffin by 734 votes in the election for a seat on the state’s highest court.
Griffin, an Appeals Court judge, wants to discount more than 60,000 votes on the belief that throwing them out will allow him to win.
After the state Board of Elections dismissed his election protests last month, Griffin asked the Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority, to step in.
The state Board had the case transferred to federal court, but on Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II sent it back to state court.
Tuesday’s order for a temporary stay said the state Supreme Court received notice that the state Board plans to appeal Myers’ decision, but “in the absence of a stay from federal court, this matter should be addressed expeditiously because it concerns certification of an election.”
Democratic Justice Anita Earls dissented, writing that the standards for a temporary stay have not been met.
After the initial notice, Republican Justice Richard Dietz also filed a dissent, writing that he would have dismissed Griffin’s request to hear his case. State courts have in the past acknowledged a principle that court intervention close to elections can damage the integrity of the election process, he wrote.
Riggs has recused herself from participation in the case.
Most of the votes Griffin wants thrown out are those his campaign claims were cast by people who did not include a driver’s license or partial Social Security number on their voter registration applications. People who did not include those numbers on their applications are not legally registered, Republican lawyers have argued. Many of those voters have been voting regularly for years. The Republican Party used the same argument last year in a lawsuit seeking to have more than 225,000 voters purged from the registration rolls or to be forced to cast provisional ballots. Myers partially dismissed that suit.
This article was updated at 10:55 am on Wednesday to add Judge Richard Dietz’ dissent.
