North Carolina Supreme Court

A North Carolina Supreme Court decision refusing to further accelerate the appeals over an unsettled November election for a seat on the court means an official winner likely won't be finalized sooner, and the trailing candidate could benefit.

An appeals court agreed Tuesday that a federal trial judge acted properly last month in declining to rule on the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters last fall in an unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court election and returning the matter to state court.

The Republican candidate in a race for a state Supreme Court seat, Jefferson Griffin, is still seeking to reverse the outcome, even after two recounts showed Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs narrowly winning the election. Riggs remains on the court while the legal battles play out.

The North Carolina Supreme Court dismissed on Wednesday a request by the trailing candidate in an extremely close race for a seat on this same court to rule now on whether well over 60,000 ballots should be removed from the tally.

Bob Phillips, with government watchdog group Common Cause North Carolina, says the organization created a mobile billboard to alert voters across the state to the matter, which he called "absurd."

North Carolina's highest court blocked on Tuesday the certification of a November election result for one of its own seats so it can review legal arguments by a trailing candidate who contends over 60,000 ballots that were cast shouldn't be counted.

The ongoing saga over the race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat is in the hands of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, for now.

The very close election for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat heads next to a hand recount even as election officials announced a machine recount of over 5.5 million ballots resulted in no margin change between the candidates.

An already close race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat reached a razor-thin margin as most counties completed final tallies from the Nov. 5 election.