North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin and North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Allison Riggs. (North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts via AP)
Other large categories of votes that Griffin is challenging were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents and by military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots. In accordance with federal law, the state administrative code says overseas voters are exempt from that requirement, WUNC reported.
Lawyers for Griffin, who is a judge on the intermediate-level state Court of Appeals, initially asked the state Supreme Court to intervene three weeks ago.
But the elections board quickly moved the matter to federal court, saying Griffin's appeals involved matters of federal voting and voting rights laws.
Griffin disagreed, and so did U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who on Monday returned the case to the state Supreme Court.
Myers — a nominee to the bench by Donald Trump — wrote that Griffin’s protests raised "unsettled questions of state law" and had tenuous connections to federal law.
Voters make selections at their voting booths inside an early voting site on Oct. 17, 2024, in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin's written protests challenging the ballots last month. That initiated a timeline in which the board would issue a certificate confirming Riggs' election this Friday — ending the litigation — unless a court stepped in. Tuesday's order stops such certification and tells Griffin and the board to file legal briefs with the justices over the next two weeks.
Democratic allies of Riggs have accused Griffin and the state GOP of trying to overturn legitimate election results.
Riggs "deserves her certificate of election and we are only in this position due to Jefferson Griffin refusing to accept the will of the people," state Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a news release.
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The state election board that dismissed Griffin's protests is composed of three Democrats and two Republicans.
The Supreme Court in the nation's ninth-largest state has been a partisan flashpoint in recent years in court battles involving redistricting, photo voter identification and other voting rights.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
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