Under the Dome: Who could decide the fate of NC election protests?
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Emily Vespa.
The machine recount in the state Supreme Court race came to an end Tuesday. Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs held her lead, reports Kyle Ingram. The contest, which has been ensnarled in election protests from her Republican challenger, Jefferson Griffin, has also spurred some misleading claims.
A Monday social media post from progressive think tank Carolina Forward claimed Republican lawmakers are “preparing to vacate” the state Supreme Court election. In a thread posted to X and BlueSky, the group suggested the General Assembly would “openly overturn the voters’ will.”
“We’ve confirmed that several Republican lawmakers are demanding to also vacate some, or perhaps all, of the recent Council of State elections,” Carolina Forward wrote.
State lawmakers don’t have the power to do that. The General Assembly can settle contested executive and legislative races, but it has no authority over judicial election protests, said Gerry Cohen, a member of the Wake County Board of Elections and an expert on North Carolina election law.
Instead, courts take up judicial election protests on appeal from the State Board of Elections, starting with the Wake County Superior Court. The state Supreme Court ultimately could have final say.
This year’s candidates for Council of State didn’t file election protests before the deadline. If one did, the legislature could eventually decide the outcome, but only once the candidate files an appeal to the state House and it’s considered in a joint committee hearing. After that, both chambers would vote on the issue in a joint session. Depending on the circumstances, the legislature could decide the winning candidate or order a new election.
Still, Cohen said in over a century, that’s only happened once. In 2004, with the Democratic candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, June Atkinson, leading her Republican opponent, Bill Fletcher, by roughly 8,500 votes, Fletcher filed protests that challenged over 11,000 ballots. A long legal fight ensued. It was in late 2005 when the protests came before the General Assembly, which picked Atkinson as the winner.
Candidates vying for two seats in the state Senate and one in the House have filed election protests that could fall under the legislature’s purview on appeal.
Carolina Forward didn’t respond to an email and phone call Tuesday, but after former North Carolina GOP Director Dallas Woodhouse said its initial claim was “completely false,” the group shared a post that said Griffin could appeal his protests to the Wake County Superior Court.
As Kyle Ingram previously reported, courts have hesitated to embrace the legal theories Griffin put forth in his challenges to over 60,000 ballots. Left-leaning groups have emphasized that if Griffin prevails in his efforts to invalidate the ballots, he could eke out a victory. But it’s also likely that some of those ballots are votes cast for him.
GRIFFIN ASKS STATE BOARD TO SPEED UP PROTEST DECISION
One month after Election Day, it’s still unclear when the state Supreme Court race will conclude. On Tuesday, Griffin filed a motion that requested the State Board expedite the timeline for handling his election protests. He asked the board to hand down its final decision on the protests no later than Monday.
Kyle Ingram reports that by Thursday, counties will begin the second recount in a sampling of precincts at Griffin’s request. If the difference between the results and previous results could change the outcome of the election when extrapolated across the state, the State Board will order a hand recount of all ballots.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
North Carolina’s school leaders discussed potential policies to curb student cellphone use during the school day at the State Board of Education meeting, T. Keung Hui reports.
Today’s newsletter was by Emily Vespa. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Under the Dome: Who could decide the fate of NC election protests?."