Military ballots in spotlight in unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court race from 2024 election

After nearly five months since the 2024 elections, a legal battle is unfolding in North Carolina over a contentious and closely contested state Supreme Court race. The outcome of this race will determine who will serve an eight-year term on the highest court in the nation’s ninth most populous state.

Incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs currently holds a slim lead over her Republican challenger, Jefferson Griffin, by 734 votes out of over 5.5 million ballots cast. Griffin, a sitting judge on North Carolina’s Court of Appeals, has been pushing to invalidate more than 65,000 ballots from the election, claiming that they were cast by ineligible voters.

Griffin alleges that the North Carolina Board of Elections unfairly dismissed his formal protests last December and certified the ballots after two recounts. If these ballots were excluded from the vote count, it could potentially change the outcome of the election in favor of Griffin.

A trial judge recently upheld the Board of Elections’ decision, but the case has now moved to a three-judge panel on the state’s appeals court. The panel heard arguments on Friday regarding the contested ballots, which include those from voters with incomplete registration records and military or overseas voters who did not provide photo identification with their ballots.

Griffin’s legal team argues that counting these disputed ballots violates state laws or the constitution, and that the elections board failed to adhere to them. Conversely, Riggs’ lawyers and the Board of Elections maintain that the ballots were lawfully cast based on existing rules and cannot be altered retroactively.

As the state awaits the appeals court’s ruling, a new advertisement has been released accusing Griffin of targeting military voters. The ad, produced by a group called Justice Project Action, features military veterans expressing concerns about military votes being invalidated. It will be aired on the Fox News Channel in North Carolina.

This ad follows a letter signed by over 200 former judges and legal experts urging Griffin to drop his lawsuit. Notable signatories include former general counsels for the North Carolina Republican Party and former GOP Governor Jim McCrory.

Regardless of the appeals court decision, it is likely that this case will eventually make its way to the state Supreme Court for a final resolution. The outcome of this legal battle will have significant implications for the future of the North Carolina judiciary.

Paul Steinhauser, a politics reporter based in New Hampshire, contributed to this report.