Federal judges block NC Supreme Court election ‘cure’ process — for now
A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily blocked North Carolina election officials from beginning a massive ballot review period — a process that potentially would have required thousands of military and overseas voters to prove their eligibility or have their votes thrown out.
The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ 2-1 ruling stems from Jefferson Griffin’s legal battle to overturn his loss to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs in the 2024 state Supreme Court race.
Tuesday’s decision means that challenged voters won’t need to validate their ballots — at least for now.
Griffin, a Republican judge on the state Court of Appeals, has spent nearly six months contesting his 734-vote loss to Riggs. The North Carolina Republican Party has litigated the case alongside him, initially seeking to discard over 65,000 ballots on untested legal grounds.
“We’re gratified that the 4th Circuit granted our motion to pause a confusing and burdensome cure process for ballots that had nothing wrong with them while the district court considers our arguments,” said Dory MacMillan, a representative for Riggs’ campaign. “We’re confident that federal law prohibits these votes from being thrown out, and we’re going to continue fighting to protect military and overseas voters.”
A representative for the NC GOP could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.
Earlier this month, the North Carolina Supreme Court rejected Griffin’s largest challenge, but left potentially thousands of votes in jeopardy.
In a 4-2 ruling, the high court ordered that military and overseas voters who Griffin challenged for not providing a photo ID with their absentee ballot would be given a 30-day “cure period” to show identification to election officials or risk having their votes thrown out. A smaller number of challenged voters would have their ballots discarded with no opportunity to cure them.
Riggs immediately brought the matter to federal court, where U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers said he would review the case before a winner was certified but would not stop the cure period from beginning.
Riggs appealed to the 4th Circuit, which agreed on Tuesday to issue a stay halting the cure period, at least until Myers could rule on the merits of the case.
“Recognizing that the district court has not yet had the opportunity to exercise its jurisdiction... and address Riggs’ motion for preliminary injunction based on her federal constitutional claims, we grant her motion for a stay,” said the order, which was signed by Circuit Judges Paul Niemeyer and Toby Heytens, appointees of President George H.W. Bush and Joe Biden, respectively.
Circuit Judge Arthur Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., an appointee of President Donald Trump, dissented from the majority, saying a stay was not necessary because the district judge already ordered the state not to certify the election based on the results of the cure period.
“The district court preserved its ability to resolve any remaining federal issues by ordering the Board not to certify the election results. It also set a very quick process for resolving any federal claims,” Quattlebaum wrote. “...I find no error in the district court’s handling of all these competing issues on a very compressed time frame.”
Without Tuesday’s ruling, the State Board of Elections would have had to begin the cure period soon by sending out notices to all of the affected voters. While that is now on hold, Griffin is still arguing with the board in state court about exactly how many voters should be included in the cure period, if it happens.
The board’s plan for carrying out the cure period would have affected 1,675 voters at most. Griffin, however, argues that more ballots — potentially over 5,000 — should be brought into question, and that the challenged voters should have fewer opportunities to cure their ballots.
This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 7:03 PM.
