The North Carolina Supreme Court decided to allow about 60,000 ballots to count in a race for a seat on its own bench, despite those voters never having provided proper identification upon registering.
A unanimous court Friday decided that over 60,000 votes challenged by Republican candidate and appellate judge Jefferson Griffin should remain in the count for the vote total. In a 4-2 split, the court also decided that another roughly 5,500 overseas voters who did not provide identification would be allowed 30 days to fix their ballots, while another 267 voters who have never resided in North Carolina would have their votes removed.
“This Court is aware of the valid competing interests in this case the need for an expeditious resolution of an election that occurred more than five months ago and the importance of ensuring that only lawful votes are counted,” the majority wrote.
Griffin’s race against incumbent Democrat Justice Allison Riggs, who is recused, is the last in the country to be decided from the Nov. 5, 2024, general election. On election night, Griffin was winning by about 10,000 votes, but over the following nine days, overseas and provisional ballots started trickling in to give Riggs a 734-vote lead.
Griffin challenged over 65,000 ballots because they were cast either by voters who had not provided a driver’s license or last four digits of a Social Security Number upon registering, in accordance with state law, or had not provided a photo ID upon casting their ballot as required in the state as well.
The discrepancy with incomplete registrations occurred because the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), currently run by Democrats, failed their duty to ensure that citizens in the state were properly registered because it did not adequately inform them the identification was required.
“To the extent that the registrations of voters in the first category are incomplete, the Board is primarily, if not totally, responsible,” the decision states. And while the NCSBE learned of the issue in 2023, well before the 2024 election, the court noted it “did nothing, however, to ensure that any past violations were remedied.”
“The board’s inattention and failure to dutifully conform its conduct to the law’s requirements is deeply troubling,” the opinion continued. “Nevertheless, our precedent on this issue is clear. Because the responsibility for the technical defects in the voters’ registration rests with the Board and not the voters, the wholesale voiding of ballots cast by individuals who subsequently proved their identity to the Board by complying with the voter identification law would undermine the principle that ‘this is a government of the people, in which the will of the people — the majority — legally expressed, must govern.’”
The court distinguished between providing an approved form of identification upon registering, which is required by state and federal law, and another law requiring voter ID upon casting a ballot, which it says the challenged voters have done. North Carolina’s voter ID laws are notoriously weak.
In an apparent attempt to shirk blame, the NCSBE released a statement putting scare quotes around the word “incomplete,” to suggest that they either were not complete or that it is not the NCSBE’s fault if they are. The board anticipates litigation to continue in federal court before the contest is fully decided — though the board has already attempted to fast-track the certification of Riggs.
A lower court decision earlier this month would have required all of the roughly 65,500 ballots — in-state and overseas voters — to cure their registrations, while still tossing the never resided voters. The high court decided something of a middle route, allowing the lion’s share of those ballots to count despite their incomplete registrations.
After the decision, Riggs filed an emergency motion to stop the decision in federal court, according to the Carolina Journal, claiming Griffin’s protests do not comply with federal law. However, the identification issues challenged by Griffin are required by federal law.
During the legal battles, Riggs remains on the state’s high court, and Griffin remains in his seat on the appellate court.
Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
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