{"id":1050538,"date":"2024-12-19T17:24:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T22:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1050538"},"modified":"2024-12-19T17:24:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T22:24:11","slug":"desperate-north-carolina-republican-candidate-attempts-to-weaponize-the-court-and-overturn-the-will-of-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/desperate-north-carolina-republican-candidate-attempts-to-weaponize-the-court-and-overturn-the-will-of-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate North Carolina Republican Candidate Attempts to Weaponize the Court and Overturn the Will of Voters\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Yesterday,<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>North Carolina Supreme Court GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin <\/em>filed legal action<\/em><\/a> with the very court he seeks to occupy, asking the court to prevent the certification of his opponent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs\u2019 victory in November\u2019s state Supreme Court race. In response to North Carolina Republicans\u2019 continued attacks on democracy, <\/em>DNC Executive Director Sam Cornale issued the following statement:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIn what has become a month-long, anti-democratic campaign at taxpayers\u2019 expense against Justice Allison Riggs, who has extended her election lead after multiple recounts, North Carolina Republican Jefferson Griffin now seeks to weaponize the very institution he asked North Carolina voters to elect him to. Griffin is making a mockery of the system he wishes to represent \u2013 demanding that the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court cancel the lawfully cast ballots of thousands of North Carolinians and simply hand him a seat on the bench. His craven attacks on North Carolina voters are an affront to this country\u2019s foundational values of democracy and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

REMINDER: Since Election Day, North Carolina Republicans have attempted to disqualify over 60,000 ballots and overturn Justice Allison Riggs\u2019 victory in their relentless pursuit of power. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times<\/a>: \u201cThis Race Was Decided by 734 Votes. The G.O.P. Wants to Disqualify 60,000 Ballots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lengthy recount of more than 5.5 million ballots from the November election that ended last week showed that an incumbent Democrat on North Carolina\u2019s state Supreme Court, Allison Riggs, held a 734-vote edge over Jefferson G. Griffin, a Republican judge on the state Court of Appeals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge Griffin has not given up. He is protesting the results of the entire election to the State Board of Elections, arguing that many voters were ineligible to cast ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge Griffin\u2019s protest argues that voters whose registration forms have no numbers should not count in this election. Among those voters are Ms. Riggs\u2019s parents.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite multiple recounts confirming Justice Riggs\u2019 electoral lead and the state Board of Elections dismissing Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin\u2019s previous protests as \u2018anathema to the democratic system,\u2019 Griffin refuses to concede. Now he is asking the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court to hand the seat to him. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

News & Observer<\/a>: \u201cThe State Board of Elections, voting mostly along party lines, agreed with Riggs and dismissed all of Griffin\u2019s protests last week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018The idea that someone could have been registered to vote, came to vote and then has their vote discarded is anathema to the democratic system and simply cannot be tolerated,\u2019 <\/strong>Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority of Griffin\u2019s protests revolve not around specific allegations of fraud, but rather legal arguments about voter eligibility which have so far been rejected by state and federal courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy Docket<\/a>: \u201cThe protests, and the motion, seem to mark an eleventh-hour bid from Griffin to gain an advantage in the race against Riggs. The results of the initial machine count put Riggs ahead of Griffin by 623 votes. A machine recount requested by Griffin gave Riggs an even bigger lead.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slate<\/a>: \u201cThe North Carolina GOP\u2019s Latest Ploy to Steal a State Supreme Court Seat\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGriffin argues that some votes shouldn\u2019t count because of voter registration forms that didn\u2019t include a Social Security or state ID number, as federal law requires. But he disregards other provisions of the law that say a voter can also provide an ID number or identifying document when they vote. The state elections board voted unanimously (Republicans and Democrats) to keep these voters on the rolls.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, a federal judge appointed by President-elect Donald Trump rejected this argument before the election. And he warned that a ruling to bar hundreds of thousands of people from voting, just days before the election, would \u2018significantly alter the allocation of power \u2026 away from a democratic form of government.\u2019<\/strong> The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe GOP majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court is possibly the most partisan high-court majority in the country. <\/strong>One justice, Phil Berger Jr., has repeatedly heard lawsuits against his father, Senate leader Phil Berger, and ruled in his favor. The chief justice has made multiple contributions to nonjudicial Republican candidates, another flagrant violation of ethics rules. And Justice Tamara Barringer is herself a former GOP legislator. These justices have rubber-stamped the Republican Legislature\u2019s voter suppression, upended early voting to help Trump\u2019s presidential campaign, and legalized gerrymandering\u2014a ruling that handed control of Congress to the GOP in this year\u2019s election.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This latest anti-democratic ploy from North Carolina Republicans comes one week after state Republicans in the legislature passed measures to boost their political power and diminish incoming Democrats\u2019 authority in a bill meant to provide hurricane relief funding to North Carolinians. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News<\/a>: \u201cNorth Carolina GOP lawmakers override veto of bill to strip power from incoming Democratic officials\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe GOP-led state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted along party lines to override outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation that is ostensibly geared towards hurricane relief, but also weakens the authority of statewide offices Democrats won in last month’s election, including governor and attorney general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, North Carolina Supreme Court GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin filed legal action with the very court he seeks to occupy, asking the court to prevent the certification of his opponent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs\u2019 victory in November\u2019s state Supreme Court race. In response to North Carolina Republicans\u2019 continued attacks on democracy, DNC Executive Director Sam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1050538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDesperate North Carolina Republican Candidate Attempts to Weaponize the Court and Overturn the Will of Voters\u00a0 - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/desperate-north-carolina-republican-candidate-attempts-to-weaponize-the-court-and-overturn-the-will-of-voters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-19T22:24:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/desperate-north-carolina-republican-candidate-attempts-to-weaponize-the-court-and-overturn-the-will-of-voters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/desperate-north-carolina-republican-candidate-attempts-to-weaponize-the-court-and-overturn-the-will-of-voters\/\",\"name\":\"Desperate North Carolina Republican Candidate Attempts to Weaponize the Court and Overturn the Will of Voters\u00a0 - 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