A Republican involved in a closely contested North Carolina Supreme Court race has requested that the court invalidate 60,000 ballots.

The lawsuit marks the latest development in the ongoing saga of the closely contested race in the battleground state, where Democratic Justice Allison Riggs holds a narrow lead of 734 votes. 

Judge Allison Riggs; Judge Jefferson Griffin.

Dec. 19, 2024, 10:37 PM GMT+6

The Republican candidate trailing by a narrow margin in the North Carolina Supreme Court race has asked the same court to invalidate 60,000 ballots cast in last month’s election.

Jefferson Griffin, an appeals court judge, made this request to the state Supreme Court after losing a similar challenge before the North Carolina State Board of Elections. He had previously sought to toss those ballots in that case. Griffin is currently trailing Democratic Justice Allison Riggs by just 734 votes.

On Wednesday night, Griffin’s campaign attorneys filed a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to block the Democratic-controlled elections board from counting the contested 60,000 ballots and to prevent the certification of the current results. The North Carolina Supreme Court currently has a Republican majority, 5-2.

“In the 2024 general election, the Board’s errors changed the outcome of the election for the open seat on this Court,” Griffin’s attorneys wrote. “When those errors were raised again in valid election protests, the Board claimed it was too late to fix its law-breaking.”

The North Carolina Democratic Party sharply criticized the lawsuit, calling it a “truly outlandish move” and likening it to a “five alarm fire.” The party accused Griffin of taking his efforts to undermine voters even further, claiming that he was now seeking to have the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court toss out legitimate ballots in order to hand him the seat.

This lawsuit marks the latest development in a contentious post-election battle in the crucial state.

Griffin and North Carolina Republicans argue that the 60,000 votes in question should be disqualified because they were allegedly cast by ineligible voters — a claim that the state elections board rejected last week. If those votes were invalidated, Griffin would take the lead in the race.

Riggs, who was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2023, was ahead of Griffin by a narrow margin after Election Day, setting off a series of recounts. Both a full machine recount and a partial hand recount confirmed that Riggs led Griffin by 734 votes. Over 5.5 million ballots were cast in the race. NBC News has not yet projected a winner.

In the aftermath of Election Day, Griffin’s team filed numerous legal challenges in all 100 counties of North Carolina, alleging that nearly 60,000 votes were cast illegally. Many of the claims centered on voters whose registration records allegedly lacked a driver’s license number or Social Security number. Additional protests were filed against overseas voters who hadn’t lived in North Carolina recently or failed to submit photo IDs with their ballots.

The state elections board rejected all three categories of Griffin's protests last week, but has not yet formally certified the election results.

A spokesperson for the state elections board did not immediately respond to inquiries about the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, the North Carolina Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit to ensure that all ballots in the race were counted. This lawsuit highlighted the fact that federal law prevents states from invalidating ballots simply because voter registration forms are missing a driver’s license number or Social Security number.

The lawsuit also pointed out that Republicans had filed their own federal lawsuit ahead of the election, seeking to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls for the same registration issues. That case was dismissed.

Griffin’s latest lawsuit asserts that his protests raise issues that should be handled by state courts, not federal courts, in line with the principles of federalism.