The Supreme Court of North Carolina temporarily blocked the ruling of a lower court that would have required to be counted and verified more than 65,000 votes cast in the disputed race of the Supreme Court of the State 2024.
The order of two sentences of the State Supreme Court prevents a Friday from entering into force so that it can review an appeal in the case of the Democratic candidate in the contest.
Monday’s ruling is the last development in a long and winding saga after a closed end in the North Carolina Supreme Court race in November.
The judge of the Supreme Court of the Democratic State, Allison Riggs, who was appointed for the bank in 2023, arose after the day of the elections above the Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin, a judge of the State Appeals Court, which caused a series of counts.
A complete machine count, as well as a partial count of the race race, both showed Riggs leading Griffin for 734 votes. More than 5.5 million votes were launched in the race. The NBC News decision desk has not yet called the race.
After the counts, the Griffin team presented legal challenges throughout the state, claiming that more than 65,000 people voted illegally. Many of the accusations focused on voters that Griffin’s lawyers said they did not have a driver’s license number or a social security number in the file in their voter registration records. His statements were also related to vote abroad who have not lived in North Carolina and voters abroad who could not provide photos identification with their tickets.
The spokeswoman for the Riggs campaign, Sophie Mestas, praised the order.
“We are happy that the Supreme Court grants our request for a stay to this deeply poorly informed order that threatens to deprive the voters of thousands of eligible voters. We will continue to follow this appeal and we are committed to ensure that power remains in the hands of voters, not politicians,” said Mestas in an email.
Griffin spokesman Paul Shumaker said in an email that “everyone expected” the order and called it “part of the process.”
The litigation on whether those votes should be counted has been trapped in federal and state courts for months.
A series of legal developments and decisions earlier this year has made the decision in the hands of the state judicial system, although the Riggs campaign has not ruled out legal actions that can return the case to federal courts.
Even small changes in the vote count in the race could affect the result.
Monday’s ruling, by the same court where a seat is at stake in the case, temporarily blocks a decision since Friday by the North Carolina Appeals Court.
In that ruling, a panel of three republican majority judges gave the North Carolina State Elections Board 15 business days to obtain the necessary identity test, for the thousands of voters whose eligibility was questioned by the Griffin campaign and its lawyers, that would verify those votes. In its decision, the court ruled that any voter who does not respond would not have their vote told.
The brief order of Monday did not say if the Supreme Court was going to review the full case of Griffin or only the appeal of Riggs, which had sought the decision of the appeal court on Friday.
Republicans currently have a 5-2 majority in the North Carolina Supreme Court. Riggs has been challenged.
Griffin is located in the State Appeals Court, but the case was challenged.
