Losing GOP candidate for NC Supreme Court challenges 60,000 ballots as recount starts
Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court, filed a series of election protests on Tuesday challenging the validity of over 60,000 ballots cast across the state.
Griffin, who also requested a recount in his race that was set to begin Wednesday morning, currently trails incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 625 votes.
He initially led Riggs by about 10,000 votes after Election Night, but the race flipped after outstanding absentee and provisional ballots were counted.
In over 300 protest documents filed with the State Board of Elections, Griffin argues that counties improperly counted ballots from voters who voted early but died before Election Day, were likely serving a felony sentence as of Election Day, or had their voter registrations denied.
“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process,” Griffin said in a press release on Tuesday. “Protecting election integrity is not just an option — it’s our duty. These protest are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
In a social media post on Tuesday, Riggs said that Griffin was “taking a tired page from the playbook of previous failed candidates.”
“... I look forward to continuing to defend my lead in this race with integrity,” she said.
In a preliminary meeting on Wednesday, the State Board of Elections set a briefing schedule for considering the protests, with final briefs due on Dec. 6.
Several losing candidates for the General Assembly also filed similar election protests, including Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon, whose loss to Democrat Bryan Cohn appears to have broken the GOP’s legislative supermajority.
Pre-election lawsuits previewed arguments
While some of Griffin’s protests fall under more traditional categories for challenging voter eligibility, a substantial portion of them rely on legal theories put forward by Republican lawyers that have so far been rejected by state and federal courts.
Many of the protests challenge voters for not having a driver’s license number or Social Security number attached to their voter registrations, though this does not, in and of itself, disqualify a voter.
The Republican National Committee argued that lacking those numbers should disqualify voters in a lawsuit filed this summer which aimed to purge 225,000 voters from the state’s rolls.
A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump rejected part of the RNC’s argument, though the case is ongoing.
Griffin also argues that votes were improperly counted from military and overseas voters who have never resided in North Carolina.
However, state law (which has been in place for over a decade) explicitly permits the adult children of North Carolina residents, who currently live abroad, to participate in the state’s elections even if they have never lived in the state.
The RNC has sued over this as well, but a trial court rejected the group’s argument and the state Court of Appeals declined to intervene.
Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said state law is vague as to what constitutes a legitimate election protest.
“As far as what’s likely to be successful and what’s not, it’s a little bit of a choose-your-own-adventure,” he said.
Cooper also noted that there is no penalty for filing unsuccessful protests.
“So the incentive is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks,” he said.
The State Board of Elections delegated protests dealing with factual allegations (such as the purported death or felon status of a voter) to county boards of elections, but voted to take jurisdiction over the protests that dealt with legal arguments.
The election protests aren’t the only legal action Griffin has taken in response to his apparent defeat.
Griffin sued the State Board of Elections on Monday, alleging that it had not provided election data to him quickly enough for him to meet the deadline for filing protests — which was Tuesday at 5 p.m.
A spokesperson for the board called the lawsuit “thoroughly unnecessary,” noting that Griffin’s campaign had been informed he would receive the requested records on the day he filed his lawsuit.
The recount for the Supreme Court race is expected to be completed by Nov. 27.
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This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Losing GOP candidate for NC Supreme Court challenges 60,000 ballots as recount starts."
