NC Supreme Court rejects requests to speed up election case

GOP Judge Jefferson Griffin may be facing an uphill battle to overturn the results of his 2024 election loss to Justice Allison Riggs for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, but Republicans just experienced a win that will leave them CHEERING.

North Carolina's Supreme Court has REJECTED a request from Allison Riggs to have the case challenging her election win go straight from a trial court to the Supreme Court.

Instead of directly making that jump, the case will make a stop in the Appeals Court.

This is huge for Republicans because the GOP currently holds a 12-3 advantage on the Appeals Court.

North Carolina's State Board and Justice Allison Riggs wanted the case to skip the Appeals Court, an idea Jefferson Griffin opposed.

The entire case revolves around Griffin's attempt to throw out 60,000 votes he claims were illegally cast in his race against Allison Riggs, the incumbent Democrat.

Allison Riggs has recused herself from hearing her own case, bringing the number of justices on the state Supreme Court hearing the case down from seven to six. Five Republicans and one Democrat are left to vote on the case.

Jefferson Griffin only trails Allison Riggs by 734 votes in their contest, a margin which has held after two recounts.

Griffin doesn't want to accept those results because he says the votes weren't lawfully cast.

His main argument is the idea that 60,000 votes were cast by people whose voter registration records lack a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.

Griffin says state law requires at least one of those things for lawful registration.

State Supreme Court justices Democratic Justice Anita Earls and Republican Justice Richard Dietz were the dissenters in the 4-2 decision to have the case hit the Appeals Court.

"There is strong justification for this Court to expeditiously address, with transparency, the significant issues in this case that go to the heart of what democracy requires under the state Constitution," Earls wrote.

"Judge Jefferson Griffin’s opposition to the bypass petition begins by asserting that this Court should not hear this case because, as a Court of six members, we might split 3-3 leaving the lower court’s ruling as the final ruling in the case. In other words, he asks us not to hear the case because he might lose. Such outcome-determined reasoning has no place in a court committed to the rule of law."

Republican Justice Trey Allen had a different opinion when he voted with the majority:

"Perhaps influenced by this Court’s order directing it to move expeditiously, the superior court simply ruled against Judge Griffin without explaining why, in his view, his claims should be denied," he said. "Consequently, if we were to take this case now, we would do so in the absence of any meaningful examination of those claims by a lower court. Given the significance of this case and the complexity of the issues raised, I think this Court could benefit from a well-reasoned and thorough examination of the parties’ arguments."