Statement on NC Supreme Court Ruling Preventing Election Certification

Yesterday, after North Carolina’s Supreme Court blocked the State Board of Elections’ certification of the 2024 Supreme Court election, Informing Democracy Director of Legal Research Jenny Gimian issued the following statement:

“North Carolina voters made their voices heard nearly two months ago and elected Allison Riggs, as confirmed by multiple recounts. The North Carolina Supreme Court’s willingness to entertain arguments from the losing candidate to suppress the voices of 60,000 voters and change the outcome is undemocratic, alarming, and erodes faith in the Court.

“Elections should be decided by the voters. This blatant effort to disenfranchise North Carolinians and steal an election must be rejected.”

Additional Background:

On January 7, 2025, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in a 4-2 decision to block the State Board of Elections from certifying Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ apparent victory in the 2024 election. The ruling said it would take more time to look into state appellate judge Jefferson Griffin’s claims of invalid voters, which the State Board of Elections already rejected. State law instructed Griffin to appeal the Board of Election’s decision in Wake County Superior Court for a trial on the evidence, but he chose to not follow proper appeal procedure. Instead he asked the 5-2 Republican majority state Supreme Court to step in without a case to trial. Since Griffin did not follow the proper procedure, the elections board would have certified Riggs as the winner, but the NC Supreme Court interfered and stopped the board from certifying.

According to reporting by ProPublica, Griffin’s legal challenge mirrors efforts that have been self-admittedly called by the head of an election denier group a form of ‘voter suppression.’