Special to IFN

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday issued an order in the election protest brought by state supreme court candidate Jefferson Griffin.

In a prior decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the court would have required challenged voters who had allegedly “incomplete” registrations to take certain actions to have their votes remain in the count in the supreme court contest in the 2024 general election. Friday’s order from the Supreme Court changes that. Voters allegedly having “incomplete” registrations will no longer have their votes impacted.

However, for two other groups of challenged voters, the Supreme Court decision will affect their votes.

For certain military and overseas-citizen voters who used absentee ballots, the Supreme Court’s decision now requires them to provide a copy of their photo identification or to complete an affidavit known as a Photo ID Exception Form to ensure their votes remain in the count for this contest.

The Supreme Court’s order increased the amount of time that an affected voter has to provide their photo ID documentation to 30 days once they are notified by their county board of elections.

Additionally, for certain voters who, while otherwise eligible, have never resided in the United States but have a connection to North Carolina through their parents, the Supreme Court’s order requires those voters’ votes to be removed from the Supreme Court contest.

The State Board of Elections understands there may be further proceedings in federal court before this matter is fully resolved. State Board of Elections staff are continuing to review the effect of these decisions and, at the appropriate time, will provide instructions for county boards of elections and affected voters on how to comply with the decisions.

This protest does not affect these voters’ selections in any other contest on the ballot.