UPDATE (May 7, 2025, 10:17 a.m. ET): Republican Jefferson Griffin said Wednesday morning that he will not appeal the federal court ruling, effectively conceding the race. “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,” he said in a statement to The Associated Press.
A federal judge has ordered the results of North Carolina’s Supreme Court race to be certified, in a ruling that, if upheld, would wrap up an election that had drawn out for months after a challenge over the eligibility of thousands of ballots.
U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in his ruling Monday that prior decisions from the state courts to toss disputed ballots in the November race “would violate the equal protection and substantive due process rights” of those voters.
The state of the North Carolina high court race has been in limbo since Democrat Allison Riggs won re-election by only 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million votes cast in November. Her Republican rival, Jefferson Griffin, subsequently filed hundreds of legal challenges across the state, alleging that nearly 60,000 people had voted illegally without listing a driver’s license number or Social Security number on their registration records, and that thousands of overseas voters in several Democratic-leaning counties did not provide photo identification.
Last month, the state Supreme Court allowed to stand a lower court’s decision to disqualify hundreds of contested ballots. The court also ruled that roughly 5,000 military and overseas voters must prove their identity within 30 days or risk having their ballots invalidated — a number significant enough to potentially undo Riggs’ narrow win.
Myers ruled Monday that Griffin’s efforts to challenge the validity of those ballots after the election would disenfranchise voters. “You establish the rules before the game,” he wrote. “You don’t change them after the game is done.” Riggs has cast Myers’ ruling as a decisive win. “I hope that this finally puts an end to this story,” she told MSNBC on Tuesday. The judge stayed his ruling for seven days to allow Griffin to appeal. Griffin’s campaign spokesperson told The Associated Press that they are considering next steps.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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