RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The ultra-close election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court led to a manual recount, even as election officials announced a machine recount of more than 5.5 million ballots resulted in no change in the margin between the candidates.
The statewide machine recount — which retabulated ballots — completed this week showed Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs with a 734-vote lead over Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the House bench. Court of Appeal.
Most county election boards reported minor vote changes from the automatic recount requested by Griffin. But data from the State Board of Elections showed that the lead after the recount was exactly the same as Riggs’ after all 100 counties fully completed their ballots in November. Griffin led Riggs by about 10,000 votes on election night, but that lead dwindled and went to Riggs when tens of thousands of qualifying provisional and absentee ballots were added to the totals through the canvas.
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Griffin, who already faces election protests challenging the validity of more than 60,000 ballots counted statewide, has requested a partial manual recount, which county councils will begin Wednesday or Thursday.
The partial manual recount applies to ballots in 3% of voting locations in all 100 counties, randomly selected by the state board on Tuesday. Once the partial recount is completed, a statewide manual recount would be ordered if the sample results differ sufficiently from the machine recount that the result would be reversed if the difference were extrapolated to all ballots.
Riggs, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2023 and is now seeking an eight-year term, claimed victory again on Tuesday. In a campaign press release, spokesperson Embry Owen said that Griffin “must concede immediately – losing candidates must respect the will of the voters and not unnecessarily waste state resources.” Riggs is one of two Democrats on the seven-member court.
Through attorneys, Griffin has challenged ballots that he says may be ineligible for various reasons and cast doubt on the election outcome. Among them: The voter registration information of some voters who cast ballots lack a driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers, and out-of-state voters who never live in North Carolina could run afoul of state residency requirements.
State and provincial governments are considering protests. Griffin’s attorneys asked the state board Monday to expedite the cases and make a final ruling early next week.
“Our priority remains ensuring that every legal vote is counted and that the public can trust the integrity of this election,” Republican Party spokesman Matt Mercer said in a news release. Final decisions of the state board can be appealed to the state court.
Griffin is joined in the protests by three Republican legislative candidates who were still narrowly trailing in their respective races after the machine recounts. The Supreme Court race and two of those three House races have not been called by The Associated Press.
The top legislative race is for a seat in the House of Representatives in Granville County and parts of Vance County. Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon trails Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn with 228 votes, down from 233 votes before the recount. Sossamon also requested a partial hard recount of his race, which was set to begin on Tuesday.
Should Cohn win, Republicans will fall one seat short of the 72 needed in the 120-member House of Representatives to maintain his veto-proof majority — giving more influence to 2025-elected Democratic Gov. Josh Stein. Senate Republicans have already won 30 of the seats. Fifty seats were needed to maintain a supermajority in their chamber.
The AP on Tuesday called a new legislative race that is not subject to protest, as Mecklenburg County Republican Rep. Tricia Cotham won her reelection bid over Democrat Nicole Sidman. An automatic recount showed Cotham 213 votes ahead of Sidman, compared to 216 after the provincial election. Cotham’s switch from Democrats to Republicans in April 2023 secured Republicans’ 72-seat veto-proof majority, allowing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes to be overridden by relying solely on GOP lawmakers.
