Raleigh, North Carolina — North Carolina election officials will not order another recount in a close state Supreme Court race after a partial recount failed that suggested a trailing Republican could overtake the Democratic incumbent.
After a machine recount of more than 5.5 million ballots was completed last week, Democratic Associate Judge Allison Riggs is now 734 votes ahead of Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge. Griffin then requested a partial recount, reexamining randomly selected ballots from 3% of the county’s 100 polling places.
By law, if sample results differed enough, the results could be reversed if the difference were extrapolated to every ballot, which would have required a statewide hand recount. But a sample vote that ended Tuesday showed Riggs actually received more votes than Griffin. As a result, the state Board of Elections said it would not order a full recount.
But the election is not fully resolved. The five-member state committee was scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday on complaints previously filed by three Republican congressional candidates in a very tight race against Griffin.
Riggs, one of two Democrats on the seven-member court, declared victory again on Tuesday, and her campaign again demanded that Griffin concede. Griffin did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The protest at the state board questioning whether well over 60,000 ballots should be counted covers three categories of ballots. This includes votes cast by people whose voter registration records do not include a driver’s license or Social Security number. Overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but whose parents are considered residents of the state, military or overseas voters who did not provide a copy of their photo ID with their ballot.
Separately, an appeals court panel on Tuesday unanimously denied Griffin’s request to order the state commission to issue a ruling on the protests before its meeting Wednesday to speed up the process.
The board can dismiss protests or, if problems are found, correct vote tallies, order additional recounts or new elections. With a 3-2 Democratic majority, the board’s decision can be appealed to state court. Other complaints filed by Griffin and legislative candidates are being considered first by the County Commission.
The state Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to block the state Board of Elections from ruling to discard ballots that are in any way disputed. Attorneys for Democrats said federal law prohibits them from systematically challenging the qualifications of voters in elections that have already passed. Some protests focused on activities that Republicans had already sued before the November election.
Democratic officials and their allies held a news conference outside the state Supreme Court building Tuesday morning and strongly criticized Griffin and other Republicans for launching claims they say would disenfranchise legal voters. Anderson Clayton, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said he is concerned the state Supreme Court could ultimately side with Republicans and cancel contested ballots.
“We’re trying to get people to speak up and file lawsuits whenever possible,” Clayton said. “And we also trust the Board of Elections to do its job and count every vote.”
Griffin led Riggs by about 10,000 votes on election night, but that lead shrank and went to Riggs as qualified provisional and absentee ballots were added to the total. Other types of complaints raised by Griffin and lawmakers are being considered by the County Commission.
The Associated Press did not mention the Supreme Court race and two of the three legislative races highlighted in the protests. In one of the two, Republican state Rep. Frank Sossamon is trailing Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn. Cohn’s victory means Republicans fall one seat short of maintaining their current veto-proof majority starting next month.
