North Carolina’s second-highest court Wednesday upheld a Republican effort to gain control of the state’s election board, boosting the GOP bid to undo Democrat Allison Riggs’ narrow victory in the state’s 2024 Supreme Court race.
A three-judge panel for the North Carolina Court of Appeals granted Republicans’ request to stay a lower court ruling that halted a measure passed by the GOP last year that would change how members of the board are appointed.
Under the measure, the governor would no longer be allowed to make appointments to the five-member board. Instead, that power would be given to the state auditor, a Republican. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) sued Republican legislative leaders over the measure, arguing that it violated principals of separation of powers in the North Carolina Constitution.
Shortly after the court of appeals granted the GOP’s stay request Thursday, Stein asked the North Carolina Supreme Court for a brief administrative stay so he can file a formal request for the court review of the case.
Without the state Supreme Court’s intervention, State Auditor Dave Boliek would immediately be authorized to pick a new slate of board members, as terms for the current state election board members ends today.
“I am prepared to take on the transfer,” Boliek said in a statement Tuesday. “I will appoint election board members who uphold the law and put their focus toward counting legal votes, efficient tabulation, and consistency across counties.”
Boliek would likely give Republicans control of the board, and the GOP could use it to support Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s effort to overturn the results of the state’s 2024 Supreme Court race, Stein warned in a social media post Wednesday.
“I fear that this decision is the latest step in the partisan effort to steal a seat on the Supreme Court,” Stein said. “No emergency exists that can justify the Court of Appeals’ decision to interject itself at this point. The only plausible explanation is to permit the Republican State Auditor to appoint a new State Board of Elections that will try to overturn the results of the Supreme Court race.”
Recently, the state board limited the number of ballots Griffin can challenge in his efforts to overturn Riggs’ victory — a key win for the Riggs campaign. But a GOP-controlled election board could potentially reverse that decision, putting a much larger number of voters at risk of disenfranchisement.