Victory for Democrat Allison Riggs, the incumbent, in the race for state Supreme Court Seat 6 has not been given a certificate by the State Board of Elections. Riggs is poised for a 734-vote win out of 5.5 million votes cast. Griffin is yet to concede, signaling an appeal remains possible.

The term is for eight years.

Judge William Pittman declined to remove about 65,000 ballots from the Nov. 5 election, as requested through Griffin’s multiple protests. Each of those was denied by the election board, including a trio on the county level and affirmed at the state level.

On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.

The process since has included stops in Superior Court, the state Court of Appeals, the state Supreme Court, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The state elections board, majority 3-2 Democrats, and Riggs are aligned in the litigation.

Griffin says the board errored in deciding protests. One, for example, involves about 5,500 ballots that came from overseas without photo identification as is required of the absentee process. In another, more than 200 people cast ballots that have never lived in the state.

The state Supreme Court begins the 2025 schedule on Tuesday. Riggs, unless a final decision is made in Griffin’s favor by then, will serve alongside Democratic Justice Anita Earls, and five Republicans – Chief Justice Paul Newby, Phil Berger Jr., Tamara Barringer, Richard Dietz and Trey Allen.

Griffin is on the state Court of Appeals. Riggs was appointed to that bench by former Gov. Roy Cooper in December 2022, then elevated with an appointment to the state Supreme Court nine months later in September 2023. She had previously served 14 years as leading counsel and executive director for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.