AILSA CHANG, HOST:
And now to a key ruling in a long-contested and closely watched election in North Carolina. A seat on the state Supreme Court held by Democrat Allison Riggs was challenged by Republican Jefferson Griffin last November. Griffin came up short when the votes were counted, and he has been questioning thousands of the early and absentee ballots. Well, last night, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Democrat, telling the state to certify her win. We're joined now by Rusty Jacobs of WUNC. Hi, Rusty.
RUSTY JACOBS, BYLINE: Hi.
CHANG: OK, so it's been - what? - six months since the election back in November. Can you just catch us up? How did we get to this point?
JACOBS: Right. And as you already noted, Griffin even held a slight lead on election night, but it was a very tight race - not a surprise in a battleground purple state like North Carolina. But in the ensuing days of the election, when the tally is made official - that's when final provisional absentee ballots are validated and tallied - Riggs overtook Griffin and opened a 734-vote lead. Now, that lead was confirmed by multiple recounts. And when the outcome seemed clear, Griffin filed these protests and - over more than 65,000 ballots, alleging irregularities. And as the case bounced back and forth between state and federal courts and became the last uncertified statewide race in the nation, it has drawn lots of attention, especially from civil and voting rights advocates who've expressed real fears that what Griffin was doing was actually testing a blueprint for overturning legitimate elections, not just in North Carolina but in future elections across the country.
CHANG: OK. And we should note that people were notified - right? - if their ballots were being challenged. So they were identified. Can you just tell us about some of these voters and what kind of technicalities that Griffin was challenging here?
JACOBS: So Griffin challenged more than 60,000 ballots, alleging that the voting registration records for these challenged voters had discrepancies that were disqualifying - things like missing a driver's license number or last four digits of their Social Security number - even though case law and state law are clear that these are not disqualifying situations for people, that they can still vote even if there are questions over registration. He challenged another pool, more than 5,000 voters - military and overseas absentee voters. He challenged their ballots - the ones cast just in four democratically leaning counties - because these voters did not present photo ID, even though state and federal law exempt them from doing so. And so it was a wide net that swept up a lot of voters, including his opponent's parents. Another challenged voter was a WUNC editor I work with every day, I know has a long record of being eligible to vote in North Carolina. And it included Rebecca Lobach, who was the Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot that died in the mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport.
CHANG: Right. Well, can you tell us more about what this federal judge said in the ruling yesterday?
JACOBS: Judge Richard Myers was appointed during the first Trump term. He was a former UNC law professor - UNC Chapel Hill. And he made it clear that he was not trying to interfere with the ability of North Carolina courts to interpret state laws, especially as they pertain to future elections.
CHANG: OK.
JACOBS: But you can't rewrite rules to an election after ballots have been cast, especially by targeted voters who complied with those rules, because that would violate constitutional rights to equal protection, due process and fair elections.
CHANG: OK. So is this battle finally over, you think?
JACOBS: We're really not sure. The judge gave Jefferson Griffin seven days to decide whether to file an appeal. So he can either do that or concede.
CHANG: That is WUNC's Rusty Jacobs. Thank you, Rusty.
JACOBS: You're welcome.
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