Judge rules 60,000 ballots should count in Supreme Court race

RALEIGH, N.C. — Ballots cast by some 60,000 North Carolina voters should not be discarded, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled Friday after hearing both sides of the protracted case to determine the outcome of the contested 2024 N.C. Supreme Court race between incumbent Allison Riggs and challenger Jefferson Griffin.

Hilary Klein, senior counsel for voting rights with Southern Coalition for Social Justice, represents 26 of the voters in question. She anticipated an appeal by Griffin’s legal team well before the judge’s ruling.

During remarks to supporters, Riggs spoke about 65,000 impacted voters. That number had been pegged at 60,000. According to recounts, Riggs beat Griffin by 734 votes.

Lawyers for Griffin, a Republican, say the votes in question are invalid because they were cast by people whose voter registrations lacked sufficient criteria such as a driver’s license number or digits from a Social Security number.

Riggs is a Democrat, and her lawyers contend voters in question checked every box required at the time they registered to vote.

“There’s no proof any of them is ineligible or that any of them acted fraudulently or did anything wrong. They all followed the rules,” Klein said.