Partial recount almost complete in North Carolina Supreme Court race

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Only two more counties remain Sunday to complete their recounts in the North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Seat 6 contest.

Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who already has pending election results challenging the validity of over 60,000 ballots counted statewide, asked for a partial hand-to-eye recount.

Griffin trailed Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs by only 734 votes out of over 5.5 million on the Nov. 5 election.

The partial hand recount applies to ballots in 3% of the voting sites in all 100 counties chosen at random by the state board.

The State Board of Election said it's waiting on Brunswick and Currituck counties to complete their recounts. They expect both of those results to be on Tuesday.

Election results doubt

Griffin, joined by three other GOP state legislative candidates, challenged ballots that he says shouldn't have counted for several reasons.

The complaints include voter registration records of some voters casting ballots lacking driver's license or partial Social Security numbers, and overseas voters never living in North Carolina have run afoul of state residency requirements.

State and county boards are considering these protests.

The North Carolina Democratic Party sued Friday to block the removal of these ballots tallied in, saying state election officials would be violating federal law if they side with protests initiated by Griffin.

The lawsuit filed comes after attorneys for Griffin went to state courts on Friday to attempt to force the State Board of Elections to act more quickly on the protests. According to a board email Sunday, NCSBE plans to meet Wednesday in Raleigh to consider the election protests and other motions. However, Griffin wants a final decision earlier.

"We applaud the county boards of elections and all of the workers who are assisting them in completing these recounts, hearing the protests from the Griffin campaign, and otherwise conducting post-election tasks," Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in a news release Sunday. "All of this additional work comes on the heels of an incredibly grueling few months before the presidential election, which was compounded in a quarter of the state due to Hurricane Helene. We respectfully ask for patience as the State Board and the county board work through this process, ensuring accuracy and compliance with the law at every step."

What happens next?

Once the partial recount is complete, a statewide hand recount would be ordered if the sample results differ enough from the machine recount that the result would be reversed if the difference were extrapolated to all ballots.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.