Democrats, voting rights activists and good government groups say Griffin's actions and support for them by the state GOP are an affront to democracy. The votes on the challenged ballots have otherwise been used to determine the outcome of every other top race in North Carolina last fall.

Republican Jefferson Griffin is trying to overturn his election loss by asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to toss 5,500 military and overseas absentee ballots. He used the same method to vote in 2019 and 2020.

Riggs won the race by a slim, 734 vote margin in November out of more than 5 million votes cast, which is not unprecedented in a North Carolina Supreme Court race. Two recounts — one machine and one partially by hand — confirmed that victory.

The GOP is trying to overturn a closely watched North Carolina Supreme Court election where two recounts show Democratic Justice Allison Riggs holding on to her seat by 734 votes.

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

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs is accusing her Republican opponent of undermining democracy

In this moment of crisis, the courts have become the final guardrail against the forces of authoritarianism that seek to undermine the will of the voters.

GOP is trying to overturn a closely watched North Carolina Supreme Court election between Allison Riggs (D) and Jefferson Griffin (R).

In early January, the Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the State Board of Elections from certifying the victory of Democratic Justice Allison Riggs