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Republican concedes long-unsettled North Carolina court election to
Democratic incumbent
By Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press
Updated 4:27 PM CDT, May 7, 2025

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - 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."

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Associated Press writer Makiya Seminera contributed to this report.

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