Democratic state lawmakers who served in the military demanded that Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin abandon his attempt to invalidate thousands of ballots, including ones cast by military and overseas voters.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that North Carolina's disputed race for a seat on the state Supreme Court must be reviewed in state courts before the matter can go before a federal tribunal.
Contributors to Jefferson Griffin's legal expense fund include a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which could end up handling Griffin's lawsuit to invalidate more than 65,000 ballots in his state Supreme Court race.
The North Carolina Supreme Court has dismissed a request by the trailing candidate in an close race for a seat on the court to rule now on whether well over 60,000 ballots should be removed from the tally. The justices on Wednesday ordered that the appeals of Republican Jefferson Griffin should be heard by the local trial court, as state law directs how appeals of protests rejected by the State Board of Elections should be handled.