The final election from November 2024 across the United States finally finished. It's been months of whining and litigation by a Republican judge that lost his election to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
It's been a saga of him—and the Republican lawmakers in N.C.—that were trying to throw out 65,000 legitimate votes (mostly from people living overseas, military personnel, and the likes).
Finally it's finished, and he conceded. Two days after a federal judge rules that they couldn't throw out the 65k votes like he wanted.
In a statement provided by his campaign to The Associated Press, Griffin said he would not appeal Monday's decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who also ordered that the State Board of Elections certify results that show Riggs is the winner by 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast in the race.
Griffin filed formal protests that initially appeared to cover more than 65,000 ballots. Ensuing state court rulings whittled the total to votes from two categories, covering from as few as 1,675 ballots to as many as 7,000, according to court filings. Griffin hoped that removing ballots he said were unlawfully cast would flip the outcome to him.
Democrats and voting rights groups had raised alarm about Griffin's efforts, which in one category of ballots had only targeted six Democratic-leaning counties. They called it an attack on democracy that would serve as a road map for the GOP to reverse election results in other states. Griffin said Wednesday that his legal efforts were always "about upholding the rule of law and making sure that every legal vote in an election is counted."