Ballots from Helene-damaged areas are among the 65,000 that Republicans want to throw out in North Carolina

The GOP is trying to overturn a closely watched North Carolina Supreme Court election where two recounts show Democratic Justice Allison Riggs holding on to her seat by 734 votes.

Jen Baddour volunteered as a poll greeter on University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus during November’s election, where a bell was rung at the polling site for anyone voting for the first time. She told young voters there, “Listen, you’re not going to see or hear the fireworks when you put your ballot in to be counted, but you will feel them in your heart,” Baddour recalled to CNN. Now, she is one of roughly 65,000 voters – including many affected by Hurricane Helene – whose ballots Republicans are trying to toss as they deploy a playbook that had been prepared when all eyes were on President Donald Trump’s election campaign. The GOP is trying to overturn a closely watched North Carolina Supreme Court election where two recounts show Democratic Justice Allison Riggs holding on to her seat, with 734 votes putting her ahead of her GOP opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin. As they’ve press forward in multiple legal forums, Republicans have not put forward evidence that voter fraud occurred in the election. For the vast majority of the ballots being challenged, they’re instead relying on what likely amounts to clerical errors by election officials to argue that those votes should be thrown out. They’re also challenging a few thousand overseas ballots, including ballots cast by military members and their families abroad, and for some ballots, they’re using arguments that were rejected by courts in pre-election court battles in the state. Critics warn that if the gambit is successful, it will set a new standard for throwing out elections based on technicalities that are no fault of the voters.