The candidates in an unresolved election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court peppered a federal court with more filings Wednesday — the latest in their legal and political dispute over which court should hear the case and possibly decide who wins the seat.
Incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs appears to have defeated Republican Jefferson Griffin by just 734 votes out of more than 5 million ballots cast in November’s election — a result confirmed by multiple recounts in the past two months. But Griffin, a judge on the state’s lower appellate court, is attempting to have more than 60,000 voters’ ballots thrown out as he seeks to change the results and be elevated to the high court.
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In court filings, as well as separate public statements, Democrats are accusing Republicans of attempting to steal the election, while Republicans are countering with concerns about possible voter fraud.
Griffin and state Republican leaders want the case to be decided by the North Carolina Supreme Court — the very court the election was for. Republicans currently hold a 5-2 majority there, which would grow to a 6-1 majority if Griffin wins.
Democrats don’t want that. On Wednesday, Riggs urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to take the case from the state Supreme Court, and to rule in her favor before February — the earliest that the state Supreme Court could hear arguments in the case.
Riggs’s filing noted that that same federal court has already ruled, as recently as October, that the voters Griffin is challenging were allowed to vote in the 2024 elections. Two of the voters whose ballots Griffins wants thrown out are Riggs’ parents, but Riggs said her bigger concern is that if Griffin’s challenge isn’t thrown out quickly, a prolonged legal battle will hurt public confidence in the judiciary and in elections more broadly.
“The voters are entitled to know that their votes matter; that the candidates they choose will assume the offices the voters chose them for, and that their votes cannot be thrown out by disappointed candidates seeking to retroactively gerrymander a win,” she wrote to the federal appeals court.
Griffin disagreed in his own legal filing Wednesday, asking for federal courts to drop the matter and let the state Supreme Court decide: “The public interest favors allowing North Carolina courts to quickly decide pressing questions of North Carolina law,” he wrote.
A new hire by Griffin’s legal team, however, indicates that there’s a potential belief the case might eventually be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Court records show that on Wednesday Griffin began being represented by a Texas lawyer, Kyle Hawkins, who has no apparent ties to North Carolina but is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
‘A swift resolution’?
The case has begun to attract national attention as it bounces back and forth between state and federal courts and has become the central focus of state politics as it has dragged on.
On Wednesday, as Riggs and Griffin filed their dueling briefs, a government ethics group also began sending a billboard truck to circle downtown Raleigh that’s calling on Griffin to concede defeat. Meanwhile, state Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons said Griffin “is fighting to ensure election integrity and resolution of these issues in a fair manner.”
Griffin, who has declined interviews about the case, has said in court filings that he’s not sure the state can be sure that about 60,000 voters are who they say they are. State elections officials say that’s false and that those voters did indeed need to prove their identity to vote, due to a new voter ID law.
North Carolina elections officials have already rejected Griffin’s efforts to throw out the ballots.
But on Tuesday the state Supreme Court’s Republican majority issued an order temporarily blocking the Board of Elections from officially declaring Riggs the winner, to give the court time to consider whether to override the Board of Elections and throw out the ballots.
Two justices, Democrat Anita Earls and Republican Richard Dietz, dissented and said Griffin’s legal challenge should be thrown out and Riggs declared the winner. They said it would set a troubling precedent if people were allowed to vote, only to later have a court throw out their ballots.
But in a 4-2 ruling, all the court’s other Republican justices voted to let Griffin’s challenge move forward. Riggs has recused herself from the deliberations. Her campaign manager Embry Owen said in a written statement Wednesday: “The people of North Carolina deserve a swift resolution and Justice Riggs will prevail.”
Griffin has declined interviews about the case.
Pressure campaign
The next question is for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to decide whether to take the case itself or let the state Supreme Court handle it.
But while Riggs supporters hope the case will be decided in federal court, some of them are also preparing for it to move forward in state court.
On Wednesday while multiple state Supreme Court justices were at the state legislature for swearing-in ceremonies, the government ethics group Common Cause North Carolina hired a billboard truck to circle the legislative building calling Griffin’s legal arguments “shameful.”
A spokesman for Common Cause, Gino Nuzzolillo, said in an interview that the group wants to pressure the Supreme Court to allow Riggs to be declared the winner, specifically referencing Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby.
“The Newby court has an opportunity for a moment of conscience,” Nuzzolillo said. “To decide, are they going to respect the will — the hopes and dreams — of North Carolinian voters? Or are they going to cave to arrogance and the desire for political power?”
A spokesman for the court didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on that Wednesday. State judges typically have a policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.