Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and her Republican challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin. (Courtesy photos)
The state Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Judge Jefferson Griffin’s lawsuit against the state Board of Elections on March 21.
Griffin, a Republican Appeals Court judge, is trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs. She leads by 734 votes, an advantage that has been affirmed by two recounts. Griffin is suing to throw out more than 60,000 ballots in an attempt to win the seat.
Panels of three Appeals Court judges are usually assigned to hear cases.
Republicans dominate the court 12-3.
Riggs asked that the entire Appeals Court hear the case. Having a full-court hearing is unusual. She also asked that Judge Tom Murry be barred from hearing the case because Murry used money from one of his campaign accounts to contribute to Griffin’s legal defense fund. Griffin has already recused himself.
The Appeals Court denied Riggs’ request for the full-court hearing. An order from the court said three judges voted for her request, and that Murry did not participate in the decision.
Murry was not assigned to the three-judge panel, so Riggs’ request for his recusal was deemed moot.
Two Republican judges, John Tyson and Fred Gore, and one Democrat, Tobias Hampson, will sit on the panel. The hearing will be held via WebEx and will stream online starting at 10 am.
Griffin is challenging three sets of ballots. He claims more than 60,000 votes were cast by people who are not legally registered because they did not include partial Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers on their registration applications. In the last few months, voters Griffin is challenging have come forward to declare they did include the information, but it was not attached to electronic voter rolls due to data mismatches or typos.
Griffin is challenging about 5,500 military and overseas absentee voters because they did not include photo ID with their ballots. The state Board of Elections does not require these voters to submit photo ID.
He is also challenging voters who have never lived in North Carolina but are connected to the state through their parents.
The state Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s election protests in December.
Last month, a Superior Court judge affirmed the election board’s actions. “The Board’s decision was not in violation of constitutional provisions, was not in excess of statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency, was made upon lawful procedure, and was not affected by other error of law,” the judge wrote.