Republican candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court suffers legal setbacks in close race

RALEIGH, N.C. — The trailing Republican in a tight North Carolina Supreme Court race suffered legal setbacks Friday as a federal judge refused to halt any upcoming official declaration that his Democratic rival won their November election.

U.S. District Judge Richard Myers rejected a demand by attorneys for Jefferson Griffin for a temporary restraining order to prevent the State Board of Elections from issuing a certificate that state Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs won.

Separately, the state board dismissed election protests filed across dozens of counties by Griffin and three GOP legislative candidates who also were involved in close elections.

By 3-2 party-line votes, the board’s Democratic majority determined dismissals were appropriate in part because the total number of voters — and thus ballots — challenged as ineligible in each race were smaller than the leads that Riggs and the three Democratic legislative candidates hold.

After recounts, Riggs led Griffin, a Court of Appeals judge, by 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast. The candidates’ differences in the other three races — two from the state Senate and one in the House — range from 128 to 228 votes.

“Even if all of these claims were decided in Mr. Griffin’s favor and in the other protesters’ favor, none of them would change the outcome of the election,” board Chair Alan Hirsch said just before a key vote Friday.

The Associated Press has not called the Supreme Court race or two of the General Assembly races that were subject of the protests.

Griffin already went to court this week asking that judges intervene in the election to rule on a much larger universe of ballots. He said that more than 60,000 votes should be removed from the count — a move that Griffin’s lawyers have argued would make him the winner.

Nearly all of these votes were cast by people with voter registration records that may lack driver’s licenses or containing partial Social Security numbers that have been otherwise required by the state for 20 years.

Riggs’ campaign and her allies say Griffin is trying to overturn an election by canceling the choices of otherwise qualified voters who are asked to provide qualifying identification when they vote. They want Griffin to concede.

Riggs is one of two Democrats on the seven-member court and is seeking an eight-year term.

As for the federal court action, Griffin’s attorneys had told Myers the temporary restraining order was needed because the board was poised “in a matter of days” to certify the race for Riggs. But Myers, appointed to the bench by Donald Trump, wrote that it wasn’t so imminent. The board said a certificate wouldn’t be issued before Jan. 3.

“The court finds that Plaintiff has failed to make a clear showing that he will suffer immediate injury before (the board) can be heard in opposition,” Myers wrote.

The ruling came two days after Griffin asked the state Supreme Court to intervene after the state board's decision last week to reject other election protests related to the driver’s license and Social Security numbers and two other categories of military and overseas voters.

The board moved Griffin’s request to the federal courts. Myers already ruled this fall against state and national Republicans who sought in part to remove from voter rolls people whose records lacked driver’s license or Social Security numbers and were determined ineligible to vote.

The boards' review of ballots Friday were based on allegations that some absentee and early in-person ballots shouldn’t count because the voter died before Election Day or that someone still serving a felony sentence voted. Others focused on residency requirements or rejected voter registrations. Republicans on the board suggested that acting Friday was premature, with board member Kevin Lewis noting the pending court matter over the 60,000-plus votes.

Griffin can appeal Friday's rulings in court as well. The option for the legislative candidates, however, is to ask the General Assembly chamber that they are seeking to serve in to decide who won the seat.

In one uncalled legislative race, Republican state Rep. Frank Sossamon trails Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn. A Cohn victory would mean Republicans fall one seat short of retaining their current veto-proof majority in the General Assembly starting next month.

In a statement before Friday's action, Sossamon left open the door to seek recourse in the House should a state legal decision call his election "result into further question.”