In a victory for North Carolina voters, thousands of voters will be able to make their voices heard and not have their ballots wrongly discarded for the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court race between incumbent Justice Allison Riggs and Judge Jefferson Griffin. As a result, Riggs will retain her seat on the state high court.
The courts affirmed what we always knew: One person cannot overthrow an election just because they don’t like the results.
This is a major victory for Secure Families Initiative (SFI), who Campaign Legal Center represented in every step of the legal process to ensure that military and overseas voters had their ballots counted. After months in the courts, North Carolina’s Supreme Court election finally will be certified.
How Did We Get Here?
In North Carolina, state Supreme Court justices are elected by the voters. In 2024, incumbent Justice Allison Riggs faced opponent Judge Jefferson Griffin for one of the seven seats on the court. After the votes had been counted and recounted, Justice Riggs was declared the winner.
However, Judge Griffin launched a cynical attempt to change the rules of the election after the fact. He brought this race to the courts and tried to throw out more than 65,000 ballots.
It is fundamentally undemocratic to try to change the rules of an election after voters have already cast their ballots. Our election system has laws in place that allow candidates to challenge results. But they cannot change the law after voters have already cast their ballots.
Learn more about the background of this case here.
Protecting the Freedom to Vote
Campaign Legal Center has been working to protect the freedom to vote for North Carolinians since last year. CLC filed two “friend-of-the-court" briefs to protect military and overseas voters ahead of the election.
Included in the 65,000 challenged ballots brought by Judge Griffin are thousands of military and overseas voters.
Throughout Griffin’s contest, CLC filed several “friend-of-the-court" briefs to urge the courts to protect the will of the voters and reject Judge Griffin’s attempts to overthrow the election results.
On February 7, 2025, the North Carolina lower court rejected Judge Griffin’s attempts to throw out the 65,000 votes. Griffin appealed.
On April 4, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Judge Griffin.
On April 11, the North Carolina Supreme Court overrode the Court of Appeals' decision on 60,000 ballots, but left 5,000 military and overseas votes in jeopardy of not being counted.
Thousands of voters would have been required to "cure" their ballots, or correct them to provide additional proof of citizenship, but Justice Riggs obtained a pause on that requirement.
The challenges proceeded in federal court, which finally ruled in favor of voters on May 5, 2025, and ordered the North Carolina State Board of Elections to certify the election for Justice Riggs.
Every American should have confidence that when they cast their vote, their voice will be heard. We the people decide the outcome of elections with our votes.
In the face of bad actors attempting to overturn valid election results, Campaign Legal Center has been at the forefront of protecting the freedom to vote for all Americans. Support our work today.
