{"id":71938,"date":"2025-04-10T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71938"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:00:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T21:00:39","slug":"in-north-carolina-a-test-case-for-overturning-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71938","title":{"rendered":"In North Carolina, a \u2018Test Case\u2019 for Overturning Election Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Election results for a seat on the state\u2019s Supreme Court have yet to be confirmed, nearly five months and two recounts after ballots were cast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For voters in North Carolina, it\u2019s like November never ended. That\u2019s because election results for a seat on the state\u2019s Supreme Court have yet to be confirmed, nearly five months and two recounts after ballots were cast.<\/p>\n

According to voting rights advocates, that\u2019s the sort of election chaos the country can expect should the plaintiffs in the case prevail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a test case,\u201d says Ann Webb, policy director with the non-profit Common Cause North Carolina, that would \u201cgreen light the idea that it is okay for candidates and courts to change the rules that apply to elections after the election has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks after losing his race by 734 votes, Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin sued the state\u2019s Board of Elections, seeking to throw out more than 65,000 ballots, most of them in Democratic leaning districts.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s opponent in the race, incumbent North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, has called the effort an \u201cunprecedented threat to democracy\u201d and vowed in a social media post to continue \u201cfighting for every eligible North Carolinian\u2019s right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sharing an update following yesterday\u2019s decision from the NC Court of Appeals \u2013 I am not going to back down and I am not going to stop fighting for every eligible North Carolinian\u2019s right to vote.\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/SIHx3cnNH3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Allison Riggs (@AllisonJRiggs)\u00a0April 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

In his suit, Griffin claims voters failed to provide required identification at the time they voted. North Carolina requires voters to provide a driver\u2019s license or the last four digits of their social security number. Griffin also argues voters who were born and are still living outside the US\u2014for example children of members of the military or missionaries abroad\u2014should not have the right to vote.<\/p>\n

Investigations have found that many of the irregularities cited by Griffin were the result of administrative error and therefore not the fault of voters, and that overseas voters followed existing rules in place at the time they cast their ballots.<\/p>\n

Critics of the suit also contend that no similar concerns were raised over votes cast in national races, including for the White House. Donald Trump won North Carolina by just over 3%.<\/p>\n

Two recounts<\/a>\u00a0also confirmed Rigg\u2019s narrow victory.<\/p>\n

Still, last week a Republican-led state appeals court sided with Griffin, ordering voters to \u201ccure\u201d their ballots by verifying or correcting their registration information. In their ruling the judges wrote, \u201cThe inclusion of even one unlawful ballot in a vote total dilutes the lawful votes and \u2018effectively \u2018disenfranchises\u2019 lawful voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those effected by the decision\u2014including\u00a0Rigg\u2019s own parents<\/a>, who told reporters they\u2019ve voted \u201csuccessfully\u201d for the past 50 years\u2014were given 15 days or risk having their ballots thrown out.<\/p>\n

On Monday the North Carolina Supreme Court stepped in, blocking for now the lower court\u2019s ruling following an appeal from Riggs and the State Board of Elections. As a member of the court, Riggs has recused herself from the case, leaving the state\u2019s high court with five Republicans and one Democrat. The justices will now review the lower court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the outcome, there will be multiple attempts to take the case to federal court and try to stop the stealing of these votes,\u201d says Webb, noting the case \u201copens opportunities for any candidate who has a close election to try to disrupt and drag out finalizing the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brennan Center for Justice, which filed an\u00a0amicus brief<\/a>\u00a0on behalf of affected overseas voters, issued a similar warning, saying that the rejection of more than 60,000 votes \u201cwould create chaos for our system of democracy, incentivizing future candidates to bring similar post-election litigation seeking to overturn their loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, more than 200 senior state government officials, lawyers, and legal educators issued a\u00a0joint statement<\/a>\u00a0pressing Griffin to drop his suit, which they described as \u201ca threat to the public\u2019s faith in our judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case in North Carolina is part of a broader political battle over voting rights. On April 10 the House passed a bill,\u00a0the SAVE Act<\/a>, that requires voters to present either a passport or birth certificate when casting a ballot. Numerous groups have come out against the bill, describing it as a direct threat to \u201cvoters and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pending case before the US Supreme Court out of Louisiana, meanwhile, could\u00a0further undo the landmark Voting Rights Act<\/a>, posing serious implications for voters of color across the country.<\/p>\n

North Carolinians, meanwhile, are incensed, says Webb.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hearing from voters. We are getting lots of calls from voters who are so angry that anyone would dare accuse them of not being registered or not following the rules,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThis has crossed a bridge with many voters we\u2019ve spoken to. North Carolinians are going to pay a lot closer attention to future judicial races.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByPeter Schurmann Apr 10, 2025 Election...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71939,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71938\/revisions\/71939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}