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183 days later, it was over.
Multiple recounts confirmed that Allison Riggs (D) defeated Jefferson Griffin (R) in a race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court by over 700 votes. Griffin, however, refused to concede, instead arguing that courts should throw out more than 60,000 ballots.
On April 4, Griffin scored a significant victory. The North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to toss 260 ballots identified by the Griffin campaign as "never residents." The court also ruled that a couple of thousand overseas military ballots that were cast without providing a photo ID should not count unless the voter provided proof of their identity within 30 days. Taken together, those two rulings could have reversed the result, particularly since the Griffin campaign was only challenging ballots from four heavily Democratic counties.
On April 15, Popular Information, in collaboration with Anderson Alerts, identified 29 "never residents" who have lived or currently live in North Carolina. The report established the Griffin campaign's errors through voting records, publicly available information, and interviews. "If they wanted to look into this even just a little bit, it's pretty clear that my residence is in Jackson County, [North Carolina]," Josiah Young, one of the purported "never residents," said in an interview. "It's really not that hard to figure that out."
Hours later, the North Carolina Board of Elections filed a notice in federal court, citing Popular Information's reporting, stating that the votes of people who were wrongly identified would be restored. The election board said it would undertake steps to "ensure each of the voters challenged are accurately identified" as a result of reports from Popular Information and others.
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On May 5, the federal court took things one step further and ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections to certify Riggs as the winner. In a decision that referenced Popular Information's reporting on "never residents," it said the decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court violated the constitutional rights of North Carolina voters.
On Wednesday, Griffin announced he would not appeal and conceded the election. Riggs has officially won an 8-year term on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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