Special to IFN

RALEIGH — The N.C. Court of Appeals issued a decision on Friday in the election protest brought by state supreme court candidate Jefferson Griffin. The court’s decision may require the county boards of elections to contact voters whose voter registration forms did not include a driver’s license number or last four digits of a Social Security number, and to allow those voters to provide that information to their county board of elections, to ensure their votes for the supreme court contest count in the 2024 general election.

The court’s decision may also require the county boards of elections to contact military and overseas-citizen voters who used absentee ballots to provide a copy of their photo identification, to ensure their votes for the supreme court contest count in the 2024 general election. This protest does not affect these voters’ selections in any other contest on the ballot.

The court’s decision is not yet in effect and is likely to be appealed. If the court’s decision does go into effect, the State Board of Elections will provide instructions to affected voters on how to comply with the court’s decision.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this ongoing legal dispute, any voter who is concerned that their voter registration information is incomplete or is not up to date should submit an updated voter registration form. Submitting an updated voter registration form is easy. Any voter who has a license from the DMV can go to payments.ncdot.gov to fill out a voter registration application. If you’re already registered, submitting this information will merely update your existing voter registration. You don’t need to create a special account with the DMV. You can select “Continue as Guest” on the DMV’s website and proceed directly to submitting your voter registration.

If you don’t have a license from the DMV, you can download a voter registration form at ncsbe.gov/register-mail, and then print, sign, and submit that paper form to your county board of elections. Contact and address information for the 100 county boards of elections is available at vt.ncsbe.gov/boeinfo.