A federal appeals court will hear the NC Supreme Court elections case

The federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said it will hear Republican State appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s elections case, where he’s seeking to invalidate more than 60,000 votes in the race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The federal court agreed to incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ request to put the case on a fast track, scheduling oral arguments for Jan. 27.

The state Supreme Court is also considering Griffin’s case.

Republican cases to invalidate North Carolina votes occupied two courts on Friday.

A state Superior Court judge denied a Republican request that could have resulted in thousands of votes cast in last fall’s statewide races being thrown out. 

Except for the contest between Riggs and Griffin, all statewide races have been certified and the winning candidates sworn into office. 

Jordan Koonts, the lawyer representing state, national and local Republicans at the hearing in Wake County suggested the winners of statewide races could still be removed because state law establishes a way to “attack the validity” of an officeholder. 

Lawyers representing the state Board of Elections and the Democratic National Committee said the actions Republicans propose would disenfranchise voters.

“The relief they seek is unjust, unfair, and frankly, illegal under state and federal law,” said Shana Fulton, a lawyer representing the DNC.

Superior Court Judge William Pittman, hearing arguments in the Wake courtroom, denied Republicans’ request for immediate action. 

“There is not any irreparable harm that the court can imagine would arise by delaying the relief sought until the matter can be fully litigated on the merits and everyone given the chance to be heard,” Pittman said. “It is beyond the court’s understanding why it has to be now.”

The Republican lawsuit centered on the question that has occupied state courts, federal courts and the state Board of Elections for months. Are people on the state’s voter rolls who do not have a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number attached to their file legally registered?

Republicans say they are not. Griffin is challenging more than 60,000 votes cast in the 2024 election based on that argument. Griffin proposes rejecting ballots only in his race, on the belief that doing so would allow him to defeat Riggs, who has a lead of 734 votes.

The subject of the Friday Superior Court hearing was an effort by the state GOP, the Republican National Committee, the Wake GOP, and two voters to delete votes from the results of all statewide races cast by people who do not have driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers attached to their voter registrations.

Republicans wanted the judge to require the state Board of Elections to go through the more than 60,000 ballots to determine whether the voters were validly registered and deduct the votes of those who weren’t, or have elections officials go back to voters to collect the government digits under a deadline. Republicans propose that voters whose information is not collected would have their votes discarded.

State law does not require voters to have a driver’s license number or Social Security number. 

The State Board of Elections has not tried to collect the information from voters, or to identify people who are not eligible, Republicans maintain.

The state elections board has known of the deficiencies for more than a year, Koonts said.  “It is the failure of the state board and its county boards to follow state law,” he said. 

Terence Steed, a lawyer representing the state Board of Elections, said Republicans shouldn’t be able to change the rules months after the election. 

“This is a longstanding principle of election law,” he said.  “Elections are not allowed to be reopened just because they claim to have found an error after the fact.” 

Many of the people in the registration system without the license or Social Security numbers provided them, Steed said. They don’t show up because of data mismatches resulting from name changes or typos.