The North Carolina Supreme Court on Monday temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling that would have required that more than 65,000 votes cast in the disputed 2024 state Supreme Court race be recounted and verified.
The state Supreme Court’s two-sentence order prevents a ruling issued Friday from going into effect so it can review an appeal from the Democratic candidate in the contest.
The ruling Monday is the latest development in a long and winding saga following a close finish in November.
Democratic state Supreme Court judge Allison Riggs, who was appointed to the bench in 2023, emerged after Election Day narrowly ahead of Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, triggering a series of recounts.
A full machine recount as well as a partial hand recount of the race both showed Riggs leading Griffin by 734 votes. More than 5.5 million ballots were cast in the race. NBC News' Decision Desk has not yet called the race.
After the recounts, Griffin’s team filed legal challenges across the state, alleging that more than 65,000 people had voted illegally. Many of the allegations focused on voters who Griffin’s lawyers claimed didn’t have driver’s licenses or Social Security numbers on file in their voter registration records. Their claims were also related to overseas voters who haven’t lived in North Carolina and overseas voters who failed to provide photo identification with their ballots.
Riggs campaign spokesperson Sophie Mestas praised the order.
“We’re glad that the Supreme Court granted our request for a stay to this deeply misinformed order that threatens to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters. We will continue to pursue this appeal and are committed to ensuring that power stays in the hands of voters — not politicians," Mestas said in an email.
Griffin spokesperson Paul Shumaker said in an email that "everyone was expecting" the order, and called it "part of the process."
The litigation over whether those votes should be counted has been stuck in both federal and state courts for months.
A series of legal developments and rulings earlier this year has put the decision in the hands of the state court system, though Riggs’ campaign hasn’t ruled out legal action that could return the case to federal courts.
Even small changes to the vote count in the race could affect the outcome.
Monday’s ruling — by the same court where a seat is at stake in the case — temporarily blocks a decision from Friday by the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
In that ruling, a Republican-majority three-judge panel gave the North Carolina State Board of Elections 15 business days to obtain the necessary proof of identity, for the thousands of voters whose eligibility was challenged by Griffin’s campaign and its lawyers, that would verify those votes. In its decision, the court ruled that any voters who don’t respond would not have their vote counted.
The brief order Monday did not say whether the Supreme Court was going to review Griffin’s entire case or only Riggs’ appeal, which had sought a halt to Friday’s appeals court ruling.
Republicans currently have a 5-2 majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Riggs has recused herself from the matter.
Griffin sits on the state appeals court but recused himself from the case.
