What happens if your vote in a North Carolina judicial race is challenged?

Legal wrangling over a North Carolina judicial seat has over 60,000 ballots being challenged. So what does this mean for those whose votes could be in jeopardy?

Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is trailing Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes in the race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat.

The current GOP-dominated court has issued a stay requested by Griffin, who is alleging that over 60,000 ballots were cast improperly. A federal judge has determined it’s up to the state Supreme Court to rule on Griffin’s request.

As it happens, this reporter is among those whose vote is in question. As I contemplated my options, I decided to call a lawyer.

Paul Cox is the general counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Cox says there are various reasons for the challenges, but in most cases, Griffin is claiming the voter registrations don’t include the person’s driver’s license or the last four digits of their social security number. He notes that a system involving several voter databases may have led to information being missing and that errors may not even be the registrant’s fault. 

"Now that doesn't mean that they're ineligible to vote," says Cox. "To the contrary, the state law says that they absolutely are eligible to vote."

Cox says that because all other races have been certified, voters don’t need to worry about the legitimacy of their ballots in those contests. And he thinks that in the end, the court will not invalidate the ballots being challenged in the judicial race because voters have not been given the opportunity to state their case or respond to the challenge.

"I would be very surprised, shocked indeed, if the state Supreme Court said we're just going to decide [to] summarily remove votes from all these voters," says Cox. 

Cox says that if the court ruled in Griffin’s favor, the state would then be constitutionally required to allow voters due process to correct their information before their ballots are removed from the count.