In a twist that could pull the rug out from under tens of thousands of North Carolina voters, a state appeals court has cracked open the door to possibly discarding more than 60,000 ballots in a high-stakes Supreme Court race that ended with a margin slimmer than a whisper.
The court’s 2-1 decision came down Friday, throwing a lifeline to Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, who trails Democratic Justice Allison Riggs by just 734 votes—a hair’s breadth in an election that saw over 5.5 million ballots cast.
At the core of the ruling is a technicality turned time bomb: the judges found that ballots from voters who didn’t submit their driver’s license or Social Security numbers, as required by a 2004 law, should be disqualified—unless those voters correct the issue immediately. In other words, the window may already be closing, and fast.
Griffin’s team declared victory, calling the decision a “win for the citizens of North Carolina.” Riggs, however, didn’t mince words. She warned that the ruling “threatens to disenfranchise more than 65,000 lawful voters” and vowed an urgent appeal to the state’s Supreme Court—which just happens to have a Republican majority.
“This isn’t just about one race,” Riggs said. “It’s about whether the will of the people can be undone by a late-game legal maneuver.”
The state’s Board of Elections was quick to clarify: the ruling isn’t in effect yet, and an appeal is expected. But officials still urged voters with questions about their registration to update their information—just in case.
The numbers tell their own story. On election night last November, Griffin appeared to have a comfortable 10,000-vote lead. But as absentee and provisional ballots rolled in, that edge evaporated. After multiple recounts, Riggs emerged with the narrowest of wins.
Griffin’s challenge hinges on the argument that tens of thousands of those ballots were submitted by voters whose registration was incomplete, and that the elections board failed to make sure those issues were resolved.
The ruling was backed by two Republican judges—John Tyson and Fred Gore—who, like Griffin, sit on the Court of Appeals. Their decision has thrown the state’s judicial race into uncharted waters, where democracy, bureaucracy, and party lines are now tangled in a tightrope act with national implications.
The next move? All eyes now turn to the North Carolina Supreme Court—where the final word could either uphold the certified results or ignite a political firestorm by tossing tens of thousands of votes.
