Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate who is narrowly trailing in the race, has asked the state Supreme Court to throw out 60,000 ballots from the election. Griffin made the request after losing a challenge before the North Carolina State Board of Elections in which he had also tried to toss those ballots.

THE BUREAUCRATIC BEHEMOTH AWAITING PETE HEGSETH AT THE PENTAGON

Griffin is trailing Democratic Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes. As a result of Griffin’s challenges, the race has yet to be called. Riggs was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2023 and narrowly emerged ahead of Griffin on Election Day, which set off a series of recounts.

A full machine recount and a partial hand recount of the race both showed Riggs leading Griffin by 734 votes with more than 5.5 million ballots being cast in the race. 

Griffin’s team then filed hundreds of legal challenges across all of North Carolina’s counties, claiming that nearly 60,000 people in the state voted illegally. The allegations mostly center on people who Griffin’s lawyers claim didn’t have a driver’s license number, Social Security number on file in their voter registration records, or overseas voters who did not provide photo identification.

After the state election board rejected Griffin’s claims, his attorneys claimed that the “Board’s errors changed the outcome of the election for the open seat on this Court.” 

There is currently no evidence that the North Carolina State Board of Elections changed the outcome of this race. 

The North Carolina Democratic Party called the lawsuit at the state Supreme Court a “truly outlandish move.”

“He is now trying to achieve what’s been aiming for all along: getting the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court to toss out legitimate ballots and hand this seat to him,” the party said on social media.

The race has not been called yet and the North Carolina State Board of Election said they would not be calling the election until all of the legal challenges are through with.