Raleigh – More than 140 Cherokee County residents whose voter registration is being challenged in an unresolved N.C. Supreme Court election may have to fix problems in order for their vote to count.
Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin is challenging more than 60,000 ballots – including 142 in Cherokee County – as part of his attempt to unseat Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs.
Riggs had a lead of 734 votes after all the 5.5 million ballots were counted, according to ncnewsline.com.
A machine recount Griffin requested affirmed that 734 lead, so Griffin requested a partial hand recount. The hand recount in Cherokee County involved one voter precinct – Culberson, in which 786 votes were cast, 625 for Griffin and 161 for Riggs.
Griffin wants a large number of votes thrown out because their voter registration forms included a partial Social Security number or driver’s license number. Visit tinyurl.com/4evrsypk to see the full list of contested voters or stop by the Cherokee County Board of Elections office at 40 Peachtree St. in downtown Murphy.
The ruling
The N.C. Court of Appeals issued a decision in the election protest brought by Griffin that may require county boards of elections to contact voters whose voter registration forms lack the required information and to allow those voters to provide that information to their county board of elections, to ensure their votes for the supreme court contest count in the 2024 general election, according to a statement by the Cherokee County Board of Elections.
The court’s decision may also require the county boards of elections to contact military and overseas-citizen voters who used absentee ballots to provide a copy of their photo identification, to ensure their votes for the Supreme Court contest count in the 2024 general election. This protest does not affect these voters’ selections in any other contest on the ballot.
“The court’s decision is not yet in effect and is likely to be appealed,” according to the statement. “If the court’s decision does go into effect, the State Board of Elections will provide instructions to affected voters on how to comply with the court’s decision.”
Updated form
Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the ongoing legal dispute over the court case, any voter who is concerned that their voter registration information is incomplete or is not up to date should submit an updated voter registration form.
Any voter who has a license from the DMV can visit payments.ncdot.gov to fill out a voter registration application. If you’re already registered, submitting this information will merely update your existing voter registration.
You don’t need to create a special account with the DMV. You can select “Continue as Guest” on the DMV’s website and then proceed directly to submitting your voter registration.
If you don’t have a license from the DMV, you can download a voter registration form at ncsbe.gov/registering, and then print, sign, and submit that paper form to your county board of elections.