A North Carolina appeals court sided Friday with the trailing candidate in a close state Supreme Court election from November, ruling that tens of thousands of ballots were wrongly allowed in the tally.

The 2-1 decision from a panel on the Court of Appeals determined that tens of thousands of NC ballots were improperly counted.

The court ordered that over 60,000 challenged voters will have 15 days to prove their eligibility or have their votes thrown out, potentially flipping the election result. Read the decision here.

On Friday, lawyers for Judge Jefferson Griffin asked his colleagues on the North Carolina Court of Appeals to retroactively change the rules for the 2024 state Supreme Court election and throw out tens of thousands of ballots.

North Carolina appeals court judges have listened to arguments about whether votes on tens of thousands of ballots in an unsettled state Supreme Court election from November should remain in the tally or be discarded.

While Judge Jefferson Griffin has declined to comment on his effort to overturn the election results, the chair of the NC GOP, which has joined in his lawsuit, sat down for an interview with The N&O.

Republicans are hoping to curb the Democratic attorney general in North Carolina from being able to challenge presidential executive orders.

"In North Carolina, and in its history, we always had nonpartisan judicial races, and when the Republicans took over several years ago they changed it," said state Sen. Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat.

Republican Jefferson Griffin is seeking to discard more than 60,000 ballots as he trails Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs by 734 votes.

As a legal fight continues in North Carolina's unresolved and contentious state Supreme Court election from last November, the Republican challenger in the race faces pressure over contested military ballots.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina appeals court judges listened to arguments Friday about whether votes on tens of thousands of ballots in an unsettled state Supreme Court election from ...