The North Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court’s order from taking effect on Monday that would have required tens of thousands of people who voted in 2024 to verify their eligibility. The higher court stayed that order while it considers an appeal in a long-running dispute over the election.
The ruling on Monday is the latest twist in a five-month battle over a seat on the very same State Supreme Court. Justice Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, won the election in November over Judge Jefferson Griffin, the Republican challenger, by 734 votes.
Judge Griffin has challenged the result, seeking to dismiss the ballots cast by roughly 65,000 people. He has argued that a majority of them were ineligible to vote because they did not supply certain required identification data when they registered — though the omission was because of administrative errors and no fault of the voters. The race is the last 2024 statewide election in the nation that remains uncertified.
On Friday, a state appeals court sided with Judge Griffin, ruling that the challenged voters must verify or correct their registration information within a 15-day window or have their ballots thrown out. That ruling was set to take effect at 5 p.m. on Monday. Because many of the affected voters live in Democratic-leaning counties, discarding their ballots could potentially have overturned the results of the election.
Justice Riggs and the North Carolina State Election Board immediately said they would appeal, and asked the State Supreme Court to issue a stay to halt the registration-fixing effort, and to review the appellate court’s ruling. Judge Griffin’s legal team did not oppose the request for a stay, but even so the higher court waited until Monday to take action.
Dory MacMillan, a spokeswoman for Justice Riggs, welcomed the Supreme Court order in a statement on Monday afternoon.
“We will continue to pursue this appeal and are committed to ensuring that power stays in the hands of voters — not politicians,” Ms. MacMillan said.
A representative for Mr. Griffin declined to comment. In a separate statement on Monday, the chairman of the state Republican Party, Jason Simmons, said that “the people of our state deserve to see this important election finalized with every legal vote counted.”
The stunning ruling on Friday sparked confusion among voters and local election officials across the state. County and state election offices were already being contacted on Monday by voters seeking to fix any issues with their ballots.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections said it would issue guidance to local officials about the registration-fixing effort if necessary.
Patrick Gannon, a spokesman, said in a statement on Monday that if the appellate ruling ultimately did take effect, his agency “will provide detailed instructions to the county boards of elections and affected voters on how to comply with the court’s decision.”
