Griffin seeks recount in NC Supreme Court race

Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin has asked for a statewide recount in his bid to unseat appointed incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs in North Carolina’s state Supreme Court election. Riggs leads Griffin by 625 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast in the race.

Final election-night totals showed Griffin leading by more than 10,000 votes. As counties counted provisional ballots and other votes not tallied on Nov. 5, Riggs overtook Griffin.

If Riggs wins, the state’s highest court will maintain its current roster of judges and its current 5-2 Republican majority. A Griffin win would shift the majority to a 6-1 Republican advantage. If Griffin loses, he still has four years remaining on his term as a member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

“At the time of writing this letter, the vote margin between me and my opponent, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, stands at 623 votes. This margin is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast in this race,” Griffin wrote in a two-paragraph letter hand-delivered to the State Board of Elections.

“Accordingly, pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 163-182.7(c)(2), I request that a recount be conducted for the North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice race under the supervision of the North Carolina State Board of Elections throughout all 100 North Carolina counties,” Griffin added.

Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party had filed suit Monday and sought a temporary restraining order against the state elections board. The complaint alleged that the board had failed to turn over public records Griffin had requested as he considered whether to file election protests and 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,” Republican lawyers wrote. “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.”

The elections board responded to Carolina Journal’s inquiry about the lawsuit Monday afternoon.

“The lawyers for this campaign demanded over the weekend that the requested records be produced by 7 a.m. today,” elections board spokesman Patrick Gannon wrote in an email Monday to Carolina Journal. “The law does not require that, but they filed a lawsuit this morning anyway. The State Board provided the requested records today. In fact, the lawyers for this campaign were informed this morning that the records would be provided today, but they served the agency with the lawsuit anyway. In sum, this lawsuit is thoroughly unnecessary.”

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