The Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked election officials from certifying a Democratic judge’s victory after his opponent tried to waste tens of thousands of votes.
North Carolina Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, a former voting rights lawyer, won reelection in November over appellate judge Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes. A recount confirmed her victory.
But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court, which now has a 5-2 Republican majority, granted a temporary stay at Griffin’s request, setting the stage for overturning Riggs’ election. The court set a deadline for briefings in the case later this month, meaning the State Board of Elections will not be able to certify the election results as scheduled this week. Mr. Riggs recused himself from the court case.
Mr. Griffin filed a challenge, arguing that about 60,000 people who did not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number on their voter registration records voted and should not have been allowed to vote. It was not clear whether the registrant had registered to vote before the requirement or the information would not be available. He tried to strip them of their votes.
“These voters were not eligible to vote without first being legally registered,” Griffin’s attorney wrote in his initial brief to the state commission.
The state Board of Elections, which has a 3-2 Democratic majority, rejected those challenges. Mr. Griffin asked the state Supreme Court to intervene.
The state Board of Elections tried to move the case to federal court because it deals with voter eligibility issues at the federal level, but the federal court on Monday transferred the case to the North Carolina Supreme Court, where Griffin reached an agreement with the lawyers. State Court Issues.
On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court issued an injunction, writing in the order that “this issue should be addressed expeditiously because it involves the certification of an election.”
Democrats and democracy advocates say the move is an attempt to prevent Riggs from winning and disenfranchise the voters who elected him.
The state’s former Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, told X: “Alison Riggs won and the recount confirmed it. Republicans don’t like the result and want to throw thousands of legal votes in the trash. This is about party politics. This should be about making sure that every vote counts and that our elections still mean something.”
“The court’s order granting Judge Griffin’s motion for a stay should not be construed to mean that Judge Griffin will ultimately prevail on the merits,” Judge Trey Allen wrote in an amended order filed Tuesday. I would like to emphasize that.”
Another judge, Richard Dietz, wrote that while he believed some of the eligibility challenges had merit, he did not agree with granting a stay because the matter came “too late.”
“While these challenges to our state’s election laws and regulations may be valuable, they cannot change the rules of an election after our state’s voters have already gone to the polls and cast their votes. .”
State Democrats said at a press conference in December that they were concerned that Republicans in the state were trying to overturn the election results.
“What is happening in North Carolina is evil, and if they are allowed to accomplish what they are trying to accomplish, it will have a chilling effect on our democracy and our country,” said Anderson Clayton, chairman of the state Democratic Party. spoke. .
