Federal judge orders NCSBE to enforce NC Supreme Court ruling on challenged ballots
LEFT – North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin. (North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts via AP, File). RIGHT – North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Allison Riggs. (Roger Winstead/North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts via AP, File)
By Marisa Sardonia, WLOS, Monday, April 14, 2025
NORTH CAROLINA (WLOS) — A federal judge on Saturday ordered the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) to begin implementing an April 11 North Carolina Supreme Court decision related to challenged votes in the election protest by state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin.
On April 11, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that tens of thousands of ballots cast in November’s unresolved election for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court must remain in the election count. This decision came after the ballots were challenged by Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin.
The court’s decision removes the requirement for voters whose registration forms lacked a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, and who did not check the box indicating they lacked these numbers, to provide this information to their county boards of elections.
This group, who have been challenged the most by this election protest, will not be required to supply additional information to ensure their votes are counted in the Supreme Court race.
However, the court’s decision would require all challenged military and overseas citizen voters who submitted absentee ballots to provide either a copy of their photo identification or a Photo ID Exception Form for their votes to be counted.
This decision would also require some county boards of elections to identify votes from U.S. citizen voters who have never lived in the United States but have parental connections to North Carolina and exclude them from the count. This would only apply to the state Supreme Court contest, not any other 2024 elections.
A federal judge has ordered NCSBE to begin implementing this new ruling. NCSBE will offer “detailed instructions to the affected counties and voters on how to comply with the decision,” the government agency announced Monday.
This is the newest development in the unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court race between Democrat incumbent Allison Riggs and Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin. It remains the only undecided 2024 election in the United States.
Read the full statement from NCSBE on this update at this link.
Read the WLOS news story here.
