Republican concedes long-unsettled North Carolina court election to Democratic incumbent

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Republican challenger for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat conceded last November's election on Wednesday to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, two days after a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands of disputed ballots challenged by Jefferson Griffin must remain in the final tally.

In a statement provided by his campaign, Griffin said he would not appeal Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who also ordered that the State Board of Elections certify results that after two previous recounts showed Riggs is the winner by 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast in the race.

Griffin's decision sets the stage for Riggs to be officially elected to an eight-year term as an associate justice in the nation's ninth-largest state.

The state board plans to issue Riggs' certificate of election on May 13, a board spokesperson said.

''While I do not fully agree with the District Court's analysis, I respect the court's holding — just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,'' Griffin said. ''I will not appeal the court's decision.''

The nation's last undecided 2024 race is settled

Myers delayed carrying out his order for seven days in case Griffin wanted to ask the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review his decision. Democrats had called on Griffin for months to accept defeat, with party officials and allies holding pro-Riggs rallies and entering the litigation. They celebrated Riggs' victory.

''North Carolina can finally turn the page on the 2024 election,'' Democratic Gov. Josh Stein wrote on the social platform X.

Riggs is one of two Democrats on the seven-member state Supreme Court, and winning improved the party's efforts to retake a court majority later in the decade. Riggs was appointed to the court in 2023 and has remained on the job while the election was unresolved. Griffin is a state Court of Appeals judge whose term ends in 2028.

''I look forward to continuing to serve the people of North Carolina,'' Griffin said.

While The Associated Press declared over 4,800 winners in the 2024 general election, the North Carolina Supreme Court election was the last race nationally that was undecided.

Riggs said in a news release Wednesday that she was ''glad the will of the voters was finally heard.''

''It's been my honor to lead this fight — even though it should never have happened — and I'm in awe of the North Carolinians whose courage reminds us all that we can use our voices to hold accountable any politician who seeks to take power out of the hands of the people,'' she said.

Judge said disputed ballots had to remain in tally

Myers ruled that Griffin's efforts after the Nov. 5 election to remove from the election total ballots that state appeals courts agreed were ineligible under state law would have damaged voters' federal due process or equal protection rights had they been implemented.

Griffin filed formal protests that initially appeared to cover more than 65,000 ballots. Ensuing state court rulings whittled the total to votes from two categories, covering as few as 1,675 ballots to as many as 7,000, according to court filings. Griffin hoped that removing ballots he said were unlawfully cast would flip the outcome to him.

Democrats and voting rights groups had raised alarm about Griffin's efforts, which in one category of ballots had only targeted six Democratic-leaning counties. They called it an attack on democracy that would serve as a road map for the GOP to reverse election results in other states if successful.

''Make no mistake, the delay in the certification of this free and fair election was completely unnecessary,'' former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a news release.

Griffin said Wednesday that his legal efforts were always ''about upholding the rule of law and making sure that every legal vote in an election is counted.''

Two categories of ballots at issue

Most of the ballots that state appeals courts found ineligible came from military or overseas voters who didn't provide copies of photo identification or an ID exception form with their absentee ballots. The appeals courts had permitted a 30-day ''cure'' process for those voters so their ballots could still count if they provided ID information.

Myers, who was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump, agreed with Riggs and her allied litigants that the ''retroactive invalidation'' of those ballots violated the rights of service members, missionaries, or others working or studying abroad who cast their ballots under the rules for the 2024 election.

''You establish the rules before the game. You don't change them after the game is done,'' Myers wrote in his order.

The other category of ballots was cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were declared North Carolina residents. A state law had authorized those people to vote in state elections, but state appeals courts said it violated the state Constitution. Myers wrote that there was no process for people mistakenly on the list to contest their ineligibility, representing ''an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote.''

Top Republican says legislation may be ahead

Griffin said the rulings of state appeals judges still recognized that the state election board failed to follow the law and the state constitution. Lawyers for the board have said it carried out election rules properly.

State House Speaker Destin Hall, a Republican, told reporters later Wednesday that Griffin's protests and litigation may prompt legislation to address problems that surfaced.

''The issues raised by Judge Griffin in that case were completely legitimate,'' Hall said, but Myers' ruling that in part found it was too late to do anything about them for a 2024 election is ''a tough pill to swallow.''

__

Associated Press writer Makiya Seminera contributed to this report.