A federal judge has ordered the North Carolina elections board to certify the disputed state Supreme Court race in favor of the Democrat candidate.
U.S. District Judge Richard Myers demanded that the state declare Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of the North Carolina Supreme Court election against Republican Jefferson Griffin.
Myers agreed with Riggs and others who argued it would violate the U.S. Constitution to carry out recent decisions by state appeals courts.
The appeals court ruling could remove potentially thousands of ballots for overseas military and their family members who were not required to attach a copy of their photo IDs, as well as ballots for a category of “Never Residents,” or U.S. citizens with family ties to North Carolina who have never lived in the United States.
Myers wrote that votes could not be removed six months after Election Day without damaging due process or equal protection rights of the affected residents.
The judge ordered the State Board of Elections to certify results in the tight race.
After two recounts, the results had Riggs as the winner, by just 734 votes over Griffin.
“The State Board SHALL certify the results of the election for Seat 6 based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period on December 10, 2024,” Myers wrote.
The judge denied Griffin’s petitions for judicial review and injunctive relief.
Myers delayed his order for seven days in case Griffin wants to appeal the ruling to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
More than 5.5 million ballots were cast in what has been the nation’s last undecided race from November’s elections.
Myers said the “case concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals.”
The board “must not proceed with implementation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court’s orders, and instead must certify the results of the election for (the seat) based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period,” Myers wrote.
Griffin, who is a state Court of Appeals judge, filed formal protests after the election in hopes that removing ballots he said were unlawfully cast would flip the outcome to him.
The Republican candidate’s legal team was reviewing Myers’ order Monday night and evaluating the next steps, Griffin campaign spokesperson Paul Shumaker told the Associated Press.
“Today, we won,” Riggs said in a statement.
“I’m proud to continue upholding the Constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina’s Supreme Court Justice.”
Griffin wanted Myers to leave undisturbed the state courts’ decisions.
The state courts also directed that most of the voters with otherwise ineligible ballots get 30 days to provide identifying information for their race choices to remain in the tally.
Riggs, the state Democratic Party, and some affected voters said Griffin was trying to change the 2024 election outcome after the fact.
Griffin was accused of trying to remove ballots cast by voters who complied with voting rules as they were written last fall.
Myers wrote that Griffin’s formal protests after the election, which were rejected by the State Board of Elections, constituted efforts to make retroactive changes to the voting laws that would arbitrarily disenfranchise only the voters who were targeted by Griffin.
Griffin’s challenges over voters not providing photo identification only covered at most six Democrat-leaning counties in the state.
“You establish the rules before the game,” Myers wrote in a 68-page order.
“You don’t change them after the game is done.
“Permitting parties to ‘upend the set rules’ of an election after the election has taken place can only produce ‘confusion and turmoil.'”
He added that the effort “threatens to undermine public confidence in the federal courts, state agencies, and the elections themselves.”
One category of ballots that state appellate courts found to be ineligible covered military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification or an ID exception form with their absentee ballots.
A state rule exempted them from the requirement.
The appeals courts had permitted a “cure” process for these voters, so their ballots could still count in the race.
The other category of ballots that the appellate courts declared violated the state constitution were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were declared North Carolina residents.
A state law had authorized these persons to vote in state elections.
Griffin filed formal protests that appeared to cover more than 65,000 ballots.
Ensuing state court rulings whittled down the total to between 1,675 and 7,000, according to court filings.
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