Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Over 200 votes from Beaufort County are being challenged by Republican candidate for NC Supreme Court, Jefferson Griffin, the Beaufort County Board of Elections shared. 

The votes are part of a total 60,000 votes Griffin believes should be tossed out. He alleges the ballots were cast by voters who did not properly register to vote according to North Carolina law. 

The race for Supreme Court remains uncertified by the North Carolina State Board of Elections despite election night results and two recounts showing Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs received 734 more votes than Griffin. This is because the conservative-heavy State Supreme Court (5-2), the one Griffin is trying to join, will not allow the board to certify the results. This gives Griffin time to contest the legitimacy of 60,000 voters who cast ballots in the race, statewide news outlets have reported. 

Though these voters were able to cast ballots, they should not have been able to and in Griffin’s opinion, a court should decide that their votes do not count. He claims the State Board of Elections does not have identifying information for said voters and cannot confirm if voters are who they say they are. That identifying information includes the last four digits of their social security number or a driver’s license number. 

In a statement, the State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s challenge, writing, 

“The State Board cannot predict what will occur in the courts with these challenges. Most of the voters challenged allegedly do not have a  driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number listed in their electronic voter registration record. There are various reasons why this may be the case. Many voters supply such a number when they register, and their county board of elections then attempts to validate that number with the DMV or the Social Security Administration. But because this effort involves attempting to match information in different government databases-using records created at different times in people’s lives-there are often mismatches in the data. When that occurs, the number is removed from the voter registration record because it failed to validate, and the voter is asked to provide an alternative form of identification when they vote for the first time.” 

Griffin is a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and has challenged the Board in court. Should the scales tip in Griffin’s favor, it is unclear who will be named the winner. As of Jan. 14, it is unclear who will make the final decision as to who will be on the NC Supreme Court. The case has gone back and forth between the federal courts and state Supreme Court, according to statewide news outlets. As of Tuesday, it’s in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Oral arguments on this case are scheduled for Jan. 27. 

At this time, there is no action planned by the Beaufort County Board of Elections to address this issue.