The court ruled 2–1 to pause the latest efforts in the long-running election dispute.
A U.S. appeals court this week temporarily blocked North Carolina state elections officials from contacting voters whose ballots were disputed in 2024’s state Supreme Court race and could be eliminated from the final vote count.
In a 2–1 ruling issued on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit paused state officials’ efforts in mailing out notices to overseas and military voters.
The notices would have given the voters 30 days to “cure”—the process of fixing absentee ballot errors—the deficiencies in their ballots.
“In furtherance of federal jurisdiction, we enjoin the North Carolina State Board of Elections from mailing any notice to any potentially affected voter pending the district court’s resolution of Riggs’ motion for a preliminary injunction,” the order said, in part.
Tuesday’s order grants an emergency request from Associate state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, who has asked federal judges to throw out the recent rulings of state appellate courts in the case. Republican opponent Jefferson Griffin has submitted court motions to toss ballots that he says were cast in violation of state law.
The court’s decision late Tuesday means government election workers are temporarily prohibited from carrying out a process mandated by state judges who ruled earlier this month that voters within two categories were ineligible.
Most of the military or overseas voters would get 30 days to provide additional identifying information so that their votes would remain in the tally. Others, however, would be unable to “cure” their ineligibility, and their ballots would be removed.
The decision also reverses U.S. District Judge Richard Myers II’s order earlier this month that denied Griffin’s request for a stay. He also instructed Board of Elections officials to be prepared to send out notices after the North Carolina Supreme Court provided instructions to inform overseas and military absentee voters.
Tuesday’s order stipulated that granting a stay in the case was proper, as Myers decides on arguments by Riggs, the State Board of Elections, and others in the case.
