Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin continues to pursue litigation in hopes of overturning the results of the November election he lost to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. (File photos)
Organizations fighting Judge Jeffferson Griffin’s attempts to throw out votes in his race for the state Supreme Court plan to step up public opposition to raise awareness and try to sway the justices who may decide whether Griffin wins.
Griffin is a Republican Appeals Court judge who is seeking to invalidate more than 60,000 votes cast in last fall’s election in an attempt to overcome incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ 734 vote lead.
The Republican Party is supporting Griffin and says the protests are a matter of election integrity, sought to prevent illegal votes from diluting legal ones.
Critics say Griffin is trying to change election rules after learning he lost.
“We are in a very scary time,” said Dawn Blagrove, CEO of Emancipate NC. She called Griffin’s effort “a blatant, unadulterated attempt to steal an election.”
Emancipate NC, Common Cause North Carolina, the NC NAACP and other organizations sponsored a Zoom meeting Thursday night to answer questions about the case, mobilize resistance, and offer advice to people whose votes Griffin is challenging.
Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the court. Riggs has recused herself from matters related to the election case.
Most of those votes Griffin wants discarded were cast by people his campaign says failed to put a partial Social Security number or a driver’s license number on their voter application forms. He argues those voters are not legally registered, though many have been registered in the state and voting for decades.
State law does not require people to have a driver’s license or a Social Security number to register to vote.
Voters on Griffin’s list have come forward to say they provided the information, but it was never attached to their electronic voter file through an error or data mismatch.
Alexia Chavis, a politically active junior at NC A&T in Greensboro, said she is diligent about updating her voter registration each time she moves. She submitted a new registration that included her driver’s license number. Still, she found her name on Griffin’s list because, she said, it had information from a previous registration.
“I did everything correctly and lawfully cast a ballot,”Chavis said.
“We shouldn’t have to deal with voter suppression from people we elect to protect us,” she said. “It’s not just frustrating, it’s very disappointing.”
Griffin is also challenging military and overseas ballots in four heavily Democratic counties because they did not submit a photo ID, and overseas votes from people who have never lived in North Carolina but whose parents last lived in the state.
The state Board of Elections does not require military and overseas voters to submit a photo ID with their ballots.
Advice for voters
Ann Webb, policy director at Common Cause NC, suggested people on Griffin’s list contact their local board of election to find out why they are on it. She encouraged people who have trouble with their local boards to call Common Cause for support.
No votes have been thrown out yet. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court rejected Griffin’s petition to start immediately disqualifying votes and sent the case back to Wake Superior Court. The case may eventually get back to the state Supreme Court through appeals of lower court decisions.
If a court orders votes removed, voters have a right to due process, Webb said.
“They have an obligation under the US Constitution to make sure you have notice that that’s going to happen and an opportunity to fix the issue,” she said. “There will absolutely be opportunities for voters to both defend their vote but also participate in legal actions to make sure everybody who’s affected can defend their vote.”
The case is continuing on two tracks, in state and federal court.
Oral arguments are scheduled in Richmond on Monday before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on the question whether the state courts should hear the case. Riggs and the state Board of Elections want the case heard in federal court. They are appealing a federal district judge’s decision that sent it to state court.
The state Board has argued that federal voting laws such as the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act are central to the case. Griffin and the state GOP say the case is about upholding state laws.
“Democratic backsliding”
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina filed a “friend of the court” brief in federal court asking the appeals court to keep the case so as to slow “democratic backsliding” in North Carolina.
The brief was filed on behalf of scholars who study the decline of democracies around the world.
Griffin is seeking to throw out the results of a popular election, the brief said.
“If an electoral loser from the ruling party was installed over the votes of a popular majority in Hungary or Poland (or some similar backsliding but still formally democratic state), observers would rightly view it as a major blow to democracy and an escalation of the backsliding trend,” the brief said.
If the state Supreme Court were to ultimately deny Griffin’s request, it would still be placed in a compromised position, the brief said.
“Judge Griffin’s damaging effort to overturn an election threatens the integrity of democracy in North Carolina and the independence of the state’s judiciary and will supercharge democratic backsliding in North Carolina. This Court should intervene and stop it.”