Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin continues to pursue litigation in hopes of overturning the results of the November election he lost to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. (File photos)
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not immediately decide on Judge Jefferson Griffin’s request to discard votes cast in his election, sending the case back to Wake County Superior Court.
Griffin, a Republican Appeals Court judge, trails incumbent Democratic Superior Court Justice Allison Griffin by 734 votes in the race for a seat on the high court. He wants the courts to invalidate more than 60,000 votes on the belief that will push him ahead.
The state Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s protests last year. Griffin asked the Supreme Court to step in and order the votes thrown out.
The Supreme Court’s order continues to prohibit the Board of Elections from certifying a winner in the race, but said Griffin’s appeal should take the usual route of going through Wake Superior Court first. Bypassing the lower courts would be an extraordinary move, the order says.
The Supreme Court ordered 6-0 to have Wake Superior Court consider Griffin’s case first. Riggs has recused herself.
Justice Anita Earls, the sole Democrat taking part in the case, dissented in part of the order. The court should have lifted the stay on the Board of Elections certifying the outcome, she wrote.
“In maintaining the temporary stay, the Court prevents the Wake County Superior Court from deciding for itself whether Griffin is likely to succeed on the merits and whether a stay is justified—a decision which state law vests in that court specifically,” Earls wrote.
Griffin’s election challenge is moving on two tracks.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments next week on whether the case belongs in state court.
After Griffin filed his lawsuit in state court, the state Board of Elections had it removed to federal court. The federal court judge sent it back. Riggs and the Board of Elections appealed.
After the state Supreme Court issued its order on Wednesday, one of Griffin’s lawyers suggested in a letter that the federal appeals court postpone oral argument and “order supplemental briefing to address the impact of this new order on the merits of this appeal and this Court’s jurisdiction.”