Politico: “A divided North Carolina appeals court on Friday ruled that tens of thousands of voters in the state needed to verify their identity months after they cast their ballots, opening the door for the votes to be tossed — and for the election results to flip in a contested state Supreme Court election.
Incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs appeared to have narrowly beat back Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin last fall, prevailing by 734 votes out of 5.5 million cast across the state. Griffin protested the election results, arguing that roughly 65,000 already cast and counted ballots should be invalidated on the basis of improper voter registration and identification.The state board of elections rejected his challenge, but the North Carolina state Supreme Court in January ruled to block certification of the results, allowing for Griffin’s case to continue.
The state appeals court on Friday ruled 2-1 along party lines in Griffin’s favor, with the two Republican judges — John Tyson and Fred Gore — writing in their majority opinion that “the post-election protest process preserves the fundamental right to vote in free elections ‘on equal terms,’” and that “this right is violated when ‘votes are not accurately counted [because] [unlawful] ballots are included in the election results.’”
Tossing out wide swaths of ballots from voters after the election would be an extraordinary decision that would likely tilt the election to Griffin, who is also a state appellate judge. His efforts to challenge the results have drawn scathing rebukes from voting rights groups, Democrats and even some Republicans who say it changing the rules of an election after it has already been run.”