Federal judge orders NC to certify Supreme Court election results with Democrat leading

A federal judge on Monday ordered the North Carolina elections board to certify results showing Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of the state Supreme Court race against Republican Jefferson Griffin ruling that thousands of contested ballots in the November contest must remain in the final count U S District Judge Richard Myers who was appointed by President Donald Trump in agreed with Riggs and others who argued it would violate the U S Constitution to carry out newest decisions by state appeals courts that could remove potentially thousands of ballots for overseas military and their family members who were not required to attach a copy of their photo IDs as well as ballots for a category of Never Residents or U S citizens with family ties to North Carolina who have never lived in the United States Myers wrote that votes could not be removed six months after Electoral process Day without damaging due process or equal protection rights of the affected residents Myers ordered the State Board of Elections to certify results that after two recounts had Riggs as the winner by just votes over Griffin FEDERAL JUDGE KICKS BATTLE OVER NC SUPREME COURT VOTE BACK TO STATE COURT The State Board SHALL certify the results of the ballot for Seat based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period on December Myers wrote denying Griffin s petitions for judicial review and injunctive relief The judge delayed his order for seven days in scenario Griffin wants to appeal the ruling to the Fourth U S Circuit Court of Appeals More than million ballots were cast in what has been the nation s last undecided race from November s elections Myers commented the development concerns whether the federal Constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an electoral contest after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals The board must not proceed with implementation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court s orders and instead must certify the results of the voting process for the seat based on the tally at the completion of the canvassing period Myers wrote Griffin himself a state Court of Appeals judge filed formal protests after the voting in hopes that removing ballots he disclosed were unlawfully cast would flip the outcome to him Griffin's legal company was reviewing Myers' order Monday night and evaluating the next actions Griffin campaign spokesperson Paul Shumaker informed the Associated Press FEDERAL JUDGE WEIGHS IN ON LAST UNDECIDED POLL In the present day we won Riggs declared in a announcement I m proud to continue upholding the Constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina s Supreme Court Justice Griffin sought Myers to leave undisturbed the state courts' decisions which also directed that majority of the voters with otherwise ineligible ballots get days to provide identifying information for their race choices to remain in the tally Riggs the state Democratic Party and specific affected voters revealed Griffin was trying to change the balloting outcome after the fact by removing ballots cast by voters who complied with voting rules as they were written last fall Myers wrote that Griffin s formal protests after the balloting which were rejected by the State Board of Elections constituted efforts to make retroactive changes to the voting laws that would arbitrarily disenfranchise only the voters who were targeted by Griffin Griffin s challenges over voters not providing photo identification only covered at majority six Democratic-leaning counties in the state You establish the rules before the event You don t change them after the encounter is done Myers wrote in a -page order Permitting parties to upend the set rules of an vote after the balloting has taken place can only produce confusion and turmoil' that 'threatens to undermine masses confidence in the federal courts state agencies and the elections themselves ' he added One category of ballots that state appellate courts discovered to be ineligible covered military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification or an ID exception form with their absentee ballots A state rule exempted them from the requirement The appeals courts had permitted a cure process for these voters so their ballots could still count in the race The other category of ballots that the appellate courts declared violated the state constitution were cast by overseas voters who have never lived in the U S but whose parents were declared North Carolina residents A state law had authorized these persons to vote in state elections Griffin filed formal protests that appeared to cover more than ballots Ensuing state court rulings whittled down the total to between and according to court filings The Associated Press contributed to this record