Voters being challenged as illegitimate by a Republican candidate for the state Supreme Court won a temporary reprieve Monday, when the high court blocked a lower court's ruling Friday from going into effect.
Jefferson Griffin, a Republican judge on the state Court of Appeals, challenged Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs for her seat in the 2024 elections. Riggs received 734 more votes than Griffin, multiple recounts have shown. But Griffin is seeking to reverse the outcome by having more than 60,000 ballots thrown out. He alleges that the board of elections shouldn't have let the voters cast ballots largely due to voter registration inconsistencies.
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Griffin's challenge was thrown out by the State Board of Elections in December. After he appealed that decision in court, he lost at trial. But on Friday, he won at the state Court of Appeals, with two GOP colleagues on that court ruling in his favor. The appellate court's 2-1 ruling said several hundred voters should have their ballots thrown out no matter what, based on a new interpretation of the state constitution. And the other 60,000-plus voters, the appeals court wrote, should have their ballots thrown out unless they take steps within 15 days to prove their identity to the state elections board.
Monday's order from the Supreme Court doesn't rule on who is right in the dispute. But it does block that Court of Appeals order, and its 15-day clock, from going into effect — at least for now, while Riggs and the Board of Elections appeal.
It's standard practice for rulings to be paused while under appeal, and the Supreme Court's decision Monday was a 6-0 unanimous vote. Riggs has recused herself from the case while it's at the Supreme Court, just as Griffin has recused himself from the case while it's at the Court of Appeals.
In the meantime, the state elections board is asking the voters who Griffin is challenging to take steps to try ensuring their votes will count if he wins in court. And while Monday's order blocks the 15-day clock from starting for people to prove their identities, it doesn't prevent people who have been challenged from taking steps to address the issues.
The elections board is urging people who are on the list of challenged voters, or who think they might be, to update their voter registration. The state Division of Motor Vehicles shares much of its data with the elections board, and the board said anyone who has a driver’s license can easily update their voter information online through the DMV website.
“Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this ongoing legal dispute, any voter who is concerned that their voter registration information is incomplete or is not up to date should submit an updated voter registration form,” the elections board said in the statement.