The race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court has tightened after Mecklenburg County finished counting mail ballots Thursday.
After Election Day, Republican Jefferson Griffin led incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs by a little more than 10,000 votes.
On Thursday, after Mecklenburg County finished counting mail ballots that arrived on Election Day, Riggs cut Griffin’s lead by 1,788 votes. Mecklenburg still hasn't reviewed provisional ballots, which are cast by voters who had Election Day problems such as going to the wrong polling place. Historically less than half of those ballots end up counting.
Mecklenburg is the state’s second-largest county and has the most registered Democrats.
As of Thursday night, the North Carolina Board of Elections reported that Griffin is leading Riggs by 8,342 votes.
The board said the “vast majority” of counties have not finished counting mail ballots.
Riggs was appointed to the court last year by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. If Griffin holds on, the GOP’s advantage on the state’s highest court would go from 5-2 to 6-1.
Four years ago, Democrat Cheri Beasley lost her seat on the court to Republican Paul Newby by 410 votes.
In other races, Democrat Woodson Bradley has extended her lead over Republican Stacie McGinn in a closely contested Mecklenburg state Senate race.
After Election night, Bradley led by just 27 votes. But Bradley’s lead has grown to 181 votes out of more than 124,000 ballots cast.
In the county’s other close legislative race, Republican Tricia Cotham leads Democrat Nicole Sidman by 215 votes after mail ballots were counted. Cotham has declared victory in the race. Sidman has not yet conceded.
