May 7 (UPI) -- The Republican candidate for North Carolina's state Supreme Court on Wednesday ended his six-month effort to overturn the election result against a Democrat.
On Tuesday, the state elections board will certify the election's result, which shows Associate Justice Allison Riggs won by 734 votes over Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin out of more than 5.5 million cast and after two recounts.
Griffin conceded two days after Richard E. Myers II, the federal chief judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, rejected his legal challenges in a 68-page ruling.
"As a judge, I believe everybody, myself included, has a right to their day in court," Griffin said in a statement. "This effort has always been about upholding the rule of law and making sure that every legal vote in an election is counted.
"While I do not fully agree with the District Court's analysis, I respect the court's holding -- just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case. I will not appeal the court's decision."
Riggs will serve an eight-year term on the 7-2 Republican-majority court after being appointed in 2023 by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to fill a vacancy after serving on the court of appeals. She continued to serve as a justice during the challenge.
Griffin's seat on the court of appeals is through 2029.
Griffin and the state Republican Party had challenged more than 65,000 votes in six Democratic-leaning counties, saying they were unlawfully cast.
"After millions of dollars spent, more than 68,000 voters at risk of losing their votes, thousands of volunteers mobilized, hundreds of legal documents filed and immeasurable damage done to our democracy, I'm glad the will of the voters was finally heard, six months and two days after Election Day," Riggs said Wednesday. "It's been my honor to lead this fight -- even though it should never have happened -- and I'm in awe of the North Carolinians whose courage reminds us all that we can use our voices to hold accountable any politician who seeks to take power out of the hands of the people."
Riggs' campaign and fund spent nearly $100,000 in legal fees , according to independent North Carolina journalist Bryan Anderson, citing election data.
Griffin appealed before the state elections board, throughout the state system and then in federal court.
The state high court in a 4-2 decision upheld the validity of more than 60,000 ballots cast in race, required thousands of others to be cured and almost 300 ballots to be discarded.
The federal judge had delayed implementing his order in case Griffin wanted to ask the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review his decision.
"You establish the rules before the game," Myers said in his ruling. "You don't change them after the game is done."
There were two categories of contested ballots.
Most ballots were from military or overseas voters who didn't provide copies of photo identification or an ID exception form with their absentee ballots. The appeals courts gave them a 30-day "cure" process.
The other one was overseas voters who have never lived in the United States but whose parents were declared North Carolina residents. State law allows them to vote in state elections, but state appeals courts said it violated the state Constitution.
It was the last election decided in the United States. North Carolina is considered a battleground state with Republicans Ted Budd and Thom Tillis holding both U.S. Senate seats, but Democrat Josh Stein was elected governor in November.
Democrats and voting rights groups called the challenges an attack on democracy.
"For 200 days, Republicans in North Carolina sought to overturn the will of the people, hijack a state Supreme Court seat, and systematically undermine basic faith in our elections," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.
"May this saga be a lesson to Republicans everywhere: If you try to undermine the will of the voters, you will lose."
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