North Carolina’s state Board of Elections voted Wednesday to reject a Republican challenge to throw out 60,000 ballots in a state Supreme Court race that the Democratic incumbent leads by just over 700 votes.
The board, where Democrats hold a 3-2 lead, could now move to certify Democrat Allison Riggs’ victory, clearing a major hurdle for the party in the contested race.
NBC News has not yet predicted a winner in the race.
Riggs, who was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2023, emerged from Election Day with a narrow lead over Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, leading to two recounts.
A full automatic recount showed Riggs leading Griffin by 734 votes. A second, partial manual recount of the race marginally increased Riggs’ lead, but that total is not considered official by the North Carolina Board of Elections. More than 5.5 million votes were cast during the race.
After Election Day, Griffin’s team filed hundreds of legal complaints in all 100 North Carolina counties, alleging that nearly 60,000 people had voted illegally. Many of the allegations centered on people who Griffin’s attorneys claimed did not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number on their voter registration.
“These voters were not eligible to vote without first legally registering,” attorneys for Griffin’s campaign wrote in the initial letter to the North Carolina Board of Elections.
Griffin’s protests involved votes that fall into three categories.
The vast majority of votes in question were cast by voters whose registration records lacked the required information, Republicans claimed.
Central to this category is the fact that voter registration applications approved by lawmakers two decades ago were intended to require people to record their driver’s license or Social Security number. However, the form did not include this requirement, and in subsequent years tens of thousands of voters did not include it. In addition, some voters likely registered before the 2004 law was passed.
The other two categories of votes that Republicans challenged involved foreign voters.
The election council held back-to-back votes on all three categories on Wednesday. The first vote, on the issue of driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers, and the second vote on an issue related to out-of-state voters who have not lived in North Carolina, proceeded along party lines. A third vote on an issue specifically affecting overseas voters who failed to provide photo identification with their ballot was unanimously defeated.
Griffin or the North Carolina Republican Party could appeal the decision, which would place the case in the state court system. If that happens, the case could ultimately end up in the state Supreme Court.
In a statement, Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, criticized the ruling, saying the party would “review the board’s decision and reserve the right to take future actions to protect the integrity of our elections.”
The Democratic Party of North Carolina filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday seeking to ensure that all ballots in the race were counted. The lawsuit, which was essentially intended to pre-empt a possible election board ruling against Riggs, pointed out that federal law does not allow states to throw out ballots because voter registration papers are missing a driver’s license number or Social Security number.
Before the election, Republicans had filed a lawsuit seeking to remove 225,000 voters from the voter rolls who were missing the same information in their registration records. The case, filed in federal court, was dismissed.
Republicans currently hold a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court. A Riggs win would keep that going.
The Republican candidate entered the challenge for the North Carolina Board of Elections board in a close race in the State House that will determine whether the Republican Party retains its supermajority in the chamber.
Democrat Bryan Cohn leads Republican state Rep. Frank Sossamon by fewer than 300 votes, but The Associated Press has not projected a winner in the race. A Cohn victory would officially end the Republican Party’s supermajority in the state House, and the power to override the governor’s attendant veto.
Wednesday’s hearing came as another crucial issue was being considered by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Democrats currently control the North Carolina Election Commission. Under current law, the governor can appoint all five members: three from the governor’s party and two from the opposition party.
But later Wednesday, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that, among other things, strips the governor of that power after overriding a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
