Griffin, Republicans seek restraining order against NC elections board

North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin and the state Republican Party are seeking a temporary restraining order against the State Board of Elections. Griffin and the NCGOP argue in a lawsuit that elections officials have failed to turn over public records Griffin has requested as he considers whether to file protests and seek a recount in his election against Democrat Allison Riggs.

Unofficial vote totals showed Griffin leading the appointed incumbent Riggs by more than 10,000 votes on Nov. 6, the morning after Election Day. As county election boards counted provisional ballots and other votes not tallied on Election Day, that lead shrank. On Friday, the official day of the county vote canvass, Riggs overtook Griffin in the vote count.

Riggs led by more than 100 votes Friday evening and led by 24 votes when lawyers for Griffin and the NCGOP wrote their complaint. As of 3 p.m., Riggs led by 70 votes out of more than 5.5 million ballots cast statewide. Five of North Carolina’s 100 counties still had not finalized vote totals from the canvass process that was scheduled to be completed Friday.

Griffin faces a deadline Tuesday to seek a recount.

“As of this filing, there are four (4) significant requests relevant to the 2024 General Election that remain incomplete and outstanding from Defendant,” according to the request for a temporary restraining order. “These requests relate to: (1) lists of conflict voters (i.e. those voters who are suspected to have voted both absentee and in-person); (2) those voters who utilized the curbside Election Day voting processes to complete their ballot; (3) full and complete lists of felony convictions, including full and complete replicas of datasets and guidance provided to each county board of elections related to felony convictions and treatment of votes cast by those convicted of a felony; and (4) full and complete lists of deceased persons, including full and complete replicas of datasets and guidance provided to each county board of elections related to deceased persons and treatment of votes cast by deceased persons.”

“While Defendants have provided some data in response to submitted public records requests, review of the provided data and responses from county boards of elections suggest that the information is either incomplete or a non-identical copy of the information that was provided to the county boards of elections,” the court filing continued. “The material differences between data received from Defendants and other agencies and county boards of elections, necessitate additional productions from Defendants to enable Plaintiffs to reconcile apparent disparities.”

“Defendants’ failures have improperly impeded Plaintiffs’ efforts to meaningfully examine the 2024 General Election processes and unlawfully interfered with Plaintiffs’ ability to evaluate the potential need to file any protests in relation to the 2024 General Election,” Griffin and the state Republican Party argued.

Riggs and Griffin are vying for an eight-year tern on North Carolina’s highest court. Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Riggs to the court in September 2023. This is her first general election for a judical seat. Griffin is a member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He won an eight-year term on that court in the 2020 election.

Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court. A win for Riggs would maintin the court’s current membership. A win for Griffin would give Republicans a 6-1 majority.

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