An appeals court agreed Tuesday that a federal trial judge acted properly last month in declining to rule on the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters last fall in an unresolved North Carolina Supreme Court election and returning the matter to state court.

Three counts found an incumbent Democrat won a State Supreme Court race. But the Republican candidate is trying to nullify more than 60,000 votes.

Rep. Mark Brody wants this power to be approved by the General Assembly and would be extended beyond conviction to include the start of the defendant’s sentence.

Griffin's electoral challenge followed the Republican National Committee and North Carolina GOP trying in August — and later failing — to have 225,000 North Carolinians purged from the voter rolls over incomplete registrations in state court. A federal court dismissed the claim in October.

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.

More calls on Wednesday for Judge Jefferson Griffin to concede the election for a North Carolina State Supreme Court seat.

North Carolina's former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has withdrawn his defamation lawsuit against CNN challenging a report that he made explicit posts on a pornography website’s message board over a decade ago.

In a win for Judge Jefferson Griffin, his challenge to North Carolina Supreme Court seat race will remain in state court, with a federal court retaining jurisdiction of several federal issues, should they remain after state court proceedings are resolved.

Judge Jefferson Griffin — he refused to accept the choice of North Carolina’s electorate. Despite two recounts and the North Carolina State Board of Elections confirming Justice Riggs’s victory, Judge Griffin sued,

The fight over the North Carolina Supreme Court race is just a preliminary test run, foreshadowing a far bigger “elephant” in the years ahead. If the Democrats are not prepared, then, if need be, the “elephants” will stomp them in the courtroom.

Republican voter registrations in North Carolina are within one-half of 1% of Democrats for the first time this century, activity that is consistent with a new national poll returning a record level of unfavorability with the Democratic Party.

In this moment of crisis, the courts have become the final guardrail against the forces of authoritarianism that seek to undermine the will of the voters.