A bipartisan coalition of more than 200 North Carolina jurists, attorneys, state government officials, bar leaders and legal educators signed on to a letter to Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin to end his effort to overturn the results of the 2024 election.
A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals is set to hear oral argument Friday in Griffin’s ongoing lawsuit to overturn the results of the state’s Supreme Court election and have more than 65,000 legal ballots tossed out. Even after two recounts, Griffin narrowly lost the election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs (D), but he wouldn’t concede — instead mounting a massive legal effort falsely claiming that the ballots were illegitimate.
“The arguments you have advanced ask our judicial system to change the rules in place for the 2024 election after it has run its course. Indeed, if you succeed, tens of thousands of voters will lose their voice after they voted,” the letter says. “For the sake of our judicial system, we ask you to terminate your litigation now.”
The signers to the letter — all members of North Carolina’s legal community — vary across the political spectrum and include former state Supreme Court Justices Jim Exum and Henry Frye, along with former Associate Justices J. Phil Carlton and Willis Whichard. A number of former North Carolina Court of Appeals, superior court and district court judges also signed on to the letter.
The signers also include a general counsel to former Governor Pat McCrory (R) and a former general counsel to the state GOP.
The letter was organized by Common Cause North Carolina, a good-government group.
Griffin filed his first petition to challenge the election results in the state Supreme Court in December, but the state elections board motioned to have the case moved to federal court. In February, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the case to proceed in state court — but the court added that the lawsuit could return to federal court if there are outstanding federal legal issues after litigation plays out in North Carolina state courts.
The state Supreme Court has blocked certification of the election while litigation continues — now in the appeals court after the Wake County Superior Court, in early February, rejected Griffin’s challenges. The three-judge panel hearing the case on Friday is composed of two GOP judges and a Democratic judge — the appeals court denied Riggs’s request for an en banc hearing.
“Our state has extensive experience with close elections and we have procedures to ensure that the count is accurate,” the letter reads. “Those processes played out here, at your request, including two recounts.”