A federal judge ordered the North Carolina Board of Elections on Monday to certify the results of the state’s Supreme Court election, giving Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs the upper hand in the still-contested race.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers ruled Monday that the state board must certify the results of the November election, which have been the target of legal challenges by Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin.

Last month, the state’s Supreme Court mandated that the majority of the contested ballots be counted in the race. In a 4-2 ruling, the state’s high court determined that ballots containing missing information, including Social Security numbers, were still valid.

“Under this Court’s longstanding precedent, mistakes made by negligent election officials in registering citizens who are otherwise eligible to vote will not deprive the citizens of their right to vote or render their vote void after they have been cast,” North Carolina’s Supreme Court previously said.

The same ruling determined some ballots could be tossed — notably thousands of overseas and military ballots where the voters needed to prove their identity.

Myers’s Monday ruling said the ballots challenged by Griffin should be counted, stating the “retroactive invalidation of absentee ballots cast by overseas military and civilian voters
violates those voters’ substantive due process rights.”

Griffin has seven days to appeal before the order takes effect.

“This consolidated action concerns an attempt to change the rules of the game after it had
been played,” Myers wrote of Griffin’s challenges in the 68-page ruling.

Riggs celebrated the ruling in a statement posted to X, writing, “Today, we won.”

“I’m proud to continue upholding the Constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina’s Supreme Court justice,” she added.