North Carolina
North Carolina Supreme Court GOP Candidate Challenges 60K Ballots
As the recount in North Carolina’s state Supreme Court race gets underway, Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is challenging the validity of tens of thousands of ballots statewide.
One of two Democrats on the seven-member high court, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, is locked into a tight race with appeals court judge Griffin (R). Griffin was leading on Election Day, but Riggs is ahead by roughly 625 votes.
On Tuesday, Griffin requested a recount. He also filed challenges to over 60,000 ballots, according to a release from the North Carolina Republican Party. The release said Griffin’s protests focus on “specific irregularities and discrepancies in the handling and counting of ballots, raising concerns about adherence to established election laws.”
“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process. Protecting election integrity is not just an option—it’s our duty,” Griffin said. “These protests are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
A review of the challenges filed with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) found that Griffin targeted ballots cast by people with prior felony convictions, ballots cast by people whose voter registration may be incomplete and absentee ballots cast by voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal 1986 law that grants some U.S. citizens living overseas the right to vote. Before the election, the Republican National Committee tried but failed to block certain overseas ballots from being counted.
On X, Riggs said Tuesday that Griffin was “taking a tired page from the playbook of previous failed candidates.”
“He’s filed more than 300 protests to challenge 60,000 ballots across NC, in an attempt to disenfranchise voters,” she said. “My goal has always been to ensure that every voter’s voice is heard.”
On Monday, Griffin sued NCSBE over requests he made to the board for voting-related data. Griffin wanted the board to send him lists of “conflict voters” (voters suspected of casting a ballot in person and via absentee). He also asked for lists on how many voters have felony convictions. A board spokesman said the complaint was “unnecessary.”
Recounts began Nov. 20 and will be completed by Nov. 27, according to a Nov. 15 memo Executive Director Karen Brison Bell sent to county elections boards. Recounts are open to the public, the memo stated, and “any person may attend the recount,” including the candidates and the media. A NCSBE meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Read more about the challenges here.
AVERY COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Former Madison County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bronis Coy Phillips was processed on Thursday, June 25, in a North Carolina county, according to court documents.
The warrants were served in Avery County on behalf of Madison County. He is now being held without bond, according to the court paperwork.
SBI ARRESTS FORMER MADISON CO. CHIEF DEPUTY FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY INVOLVING INMATES, STAFF
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation announced that Phillips was arrested on June 14 in Maricopa County, Arizona. He’s expected to face charges in N.C., as News 13 previously reported.
According to court records, Phillips faces multiple felony charges, including:
- Furnishing controlled substances to inmates
- Furnishing deadly weapons to inmates
- Involuntary servitude
- Two counts of assault with a firearm on a detention facility employee
COURT RECORDS REVEAL NEW DETAILS IN FORMER MADISON CO. CHIEF DEPUTY ARREST
He was also charged with two misdemeanors:
- Furnishing alcoholic beverages to inmates
- Furnishing tobacco products to inmates
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The NCSBI said the charges stem from an investigation into alleged criminal activity involving inmates and detention facility staff.
North Carolina and NC State, scheduled to meet just once in the men’s basketball regular season for the second consecutive season, are working to schedule a nonconference meeting in Greensboro in December, WRAL has learned.
The Atlantic Coast Conference rivals had played annual games in Raleigh and in Chapel Hill for more than 100 years before last season when the teams met just once in Raleigh. This season, the ACC scheduled just one meeting between the schools in Chapel Hill.
The additional meeting, which is not finalized, would be played Dec. 15 in Greensboro, according to a source.
The 18-team ACC moved from 20 conference games to 18 before last season in an attempt to improve the league’s NCAA Tournament credentials. It worked as the league received eight bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2026, but it also created some scheduling changes, including the elimination of a second game between NC State and UNC in most seasons.
The current conference schedule dictates that each school plays two teams twice (a primary partner and a variable partner), plays 14 teams once and misses one school altogether. In 2026-27, UNC will play Duke (primary) and Louisville (variable) twice and won’t play Clemson. NC State will play Wake Forest (primary) and California (variable) twice and won’t play Syracuse.
Greensboro was the longtime home of the conference office. The ACC men’s basketball tournament has been held at First Horizon Coliseum, formerly the Greensboro Coliseum, 29 times – the most in league history.
For decades, the ACC played a true round robin among its members — a format that became unworkable as the league grew to 12, 15 and, now, 18 basketball-playing schools.
State lawmakers have pursued various measures to force schools in the UNC System to play each other, citing the economic impact of such meetings. North Carolina and NC State are UNC System schools.
A 2024 bill would have required the two ACC schools to play each other and other in-state public universities in football and basketball. A 2025 bill, aimed at potential conference realignment, would have required that NC State and UNC play each annually in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball. The Senate’s 2025 budget proposal would have required more basketball games between UNC, NC State and smaller schools across the state. The budget would have added UNC and NC State to the schools that receive annual distributions from sports betting tax revenue.
None of those measures have become law.
NC State and North Carolina have been conference mates since 1911, first in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association, then in the Southern Conference and now the ACC. Both have been members of the ACC since its 1953 founding.
There is some sad news from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s popular Barn Owl Live Cam.
Wildlife officials say a Great Horned Owl entered the barn Wednesday around midnight and killed one of the barn owl owlets. Biologists have not been able to determine which owlet was lost.
They have confirmed it was one of the three youngest birds in the nest. The Wildlife Commission says the incident is heartbreaking but also a natural part of life in the wild.
Great Horned Owls are one of the main predators of Barn Owls, and encounters between the two species do happen. The attack was captured on the live camera.
Officials say the video also shows an extremely rare moment when the adult female Barn Owl fought the Great Horned Owl on top of the nest box. Despite the loss, the surviving owlets are expected to continue growing over the coming weeks.
They will lose their fluffy down feathers, begin exploring outside the barn, and continue developing hunting skills.
The Wildlife Commission says some of the young owls could leave the nest as early as July.
After leaving the nest, they usually travel alone and may eventually move hundreds of miles from where they hatched. The Barn Owl Live Cam remains available for the public to watch.
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