New details explains confusion on the North Carolina SCOTUS race

"The state board has determined that there is nothing wrong with these voters."

NEW HANOVER COUNTY (WWAY)–New details on the North Carolina Supreme Court race share what to do if your name is on a list whose ballots are being challenged. It also explains why the Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin claims that voter registrations weren’t done properly, as for why Griffin is behind Democrat Allison Riggs.

On Monday, we told you more than 60,000 North Carolina ballots for a State Supreme Court seat are being challenged by Republican Candidate Jefferson Griffin, who is currently losing his race by a little more than 700 votes.

Out of New Hanover, Brunswick, Bladen, Columbus, and Pender Counties, about 4,000 ballots are being challenged, according to a list of names, showing if your ballot is being disenfranchised.

“The state board has determined that there is nothing wrong with these voters,” said Paul Cox, General Counsel for North Carolina State Board of Elections.

If you are worried about your ballot, Cox says to call your county’s board of elections to check your registration record.

“They can submit an updated voter registration form. They can do it if they are a DMV customer- they have a driver’s license through the state of North Carolina, they can do it through the DMV’s website,” Cox said.

The reason for the confusion is that old voter registration applications did not require a driver’s license or social security number when registering to vote.

“When you show your driver’s license, the election worker is not jotting down your driver’s license number or your social security number. So, it’s not in the system,” Cox said.

If you register to vote through the DMV, those numbers are automatically transferred to the elections electronic database. Cox says problems mainly stem from registrations done on paper.

However, newer applications require personal identification information, which Cox says can sometimes be neglected to get transferred.

“Sometimes there are errors where a county worker doesn’t put the number into the database. Even though the person gave them the number,” Cox said.

And for women who provided a number using their married name as opposed to their maiden, it can also be a factor.

“That record doesn’t match. Now, when we don’t get a match in the records from the database, the system removes that number from the database,” Cox explained.

A trial court hearing on the challenge has been scheduled for February 7th, to decide if the appeal of the election protest, which was dismissed at the state board of elections. To check if your name is on the list, click here.