The latest NC Supreme Court race developments

Over the next two weeks, federal and state courts will review legal briefs. Republicans are seeking to overturn the Supreme Court election Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs is winning.

Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin are neck-and-neck in their 2024 Supreme Court bids.

If you want to understand the mess that has become North Carolina’s Supreme Court race, your best point of reference is the movie Burn After Reading. The contest has become one complicated cluster of a situation, and it’s incredibly difficult to break down all that has happened.

With so much going on, constant developments, multiple court cases and multiple jurisdictions, I thought it’d be helpful to unpack things as simply as possible. Mind you, this is an oversimplification, but I’m going to try my best to explain where we stand today in the only uncertified statewide race in the country:

What’s going on?

Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs is the apparent winner of her reelection bid, leading Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes.

Last month, the State Board of Elections concluded there weren’t enough possible outstanding possible votes in dispute that could go Griffin’s way to change the outcome of the election. Griffin now wants to overturn an apparent defeat.

And days before the state elections board was slated to certify Riggs’ win, Griffin got a major boost— the conservative state Supreme Court by a 4-2 vote agreeing to consider his election protests.

What’s being disputed?

Griffin wants 66,049 votes tossed out. They are broken down into three categories: