Five months is way too long
The election of a North Carolina Supreme Court Justice is in limbo, after the voters decided last November. The challenger needs to move on and quit blaming the voters for registration discrepancies.
On the left, Democrat Allison Riggs who is an associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, and, on the right, Republican Jefferson Griffin who ran against Riggs in the 2024 elections. Riggs won by 734 votes but Griffin is asking for more than 65,000 ballots to be tossed out, probably giving him the top position. The outcome is in the courts.
Berger: don’t blame the voters
Maybe Phil Berger, the North Carolina Senator from Rockingham County who was included in previous posts, is softening, not agreeing with a fellow Republican in the election of an associate justice to the state Supreme Court.
Concerning the inane effort by NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin—who, as a student and member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity at UNC-Chapel Hill, wore a Confederate military uniform and had his photo taken as he held the Bars and Stars of the Confederacy—to toss out some 65,000 ballots in his attempt to overcome a 734-vote loss to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, Berger, the NC Senate’s President Pro Tempore, thinks Griffin should fold his Old South tent and move on.
“The equities are with the voters there,” said Berger recently. “I don’t think that they had a way of knowing that that was a deficiency as far as their registration is concerned."
Those inequities include but are not limited to the lack of a North Carolina driver’s license number or a Social Security number in the NC Board of Elections registration database. Berger, who doesn’t want to disenfranchise voters, basically believes Griffin should drop the challenge and move on. That’s our take as what his statement means.
The desire by Griffin—according to research by Raleigh newspaper The News & Observer—targets Black voters ballots by about 200 percent over white voters ballots, hence Griffin, as a student, who matriculated (1999-2003) the Chapel Hill school that’s always been considered a bastion of liberal pursuit and therefore the Confederacy props by the Republican and the KA fraternity.
As with most all politicians who find themselves in such a quandary, Griffin, who grew up in the Nash County community of Red Oak, NC, who is 44-years old, and who earned his law degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham, has attempted to backslide his predicament, his association with the Grays of the South.
“I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,” he said. “At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation’s broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.”
Griffin wants to disenfranchise 65,000 North Carolinians due to what is most likely a clerical error and nothing to disenfranchise North Carolina voters. It’s doubtful that many voters purposely left off that information: driver’s license and Social Security numbers. Since it appears most of those voters are Black, Griffin shows little “respect for all people.” It also shows what kind of bias he would take with him to the Supreme Court.
One must wonder how Griffin feels about the concept of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as defined on a Wikipedia page, the organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination based on identity or disability.
On the other hand, he doesn’t have to worry about it because the conservative dominated United States Supreme Court dismantled that concept in a 2023 ruling. I apologize for getting a little off track here, but I thought a look at DEI at this time worked. Anyway …
The challenge by Griffin of the 65,000 ballots is in the hands of the courts which, the higher you go, are stacked with Republicans and in Griffin’s favor. If a final ruling is with Griffin, it’s purely political no matter what anyone says and probably one reason Berger wants Griffin to bow out. Berger really doesn’t need the voter fallout because Republicans rule the roost when it comes to the North Carolina judiciary at the top.
There is the possibility of a different twist to Griffin’s challenge. That’s makes one to wonder, if the ballots are tossed, can the results of other elections on those ballots be changed. For that we turned to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) for an explanation of these questions:
Would a voter's entire ballot get tossed?
Can only the Supreme Court race ballots be tossed without tossing those ballots for other races?
Are there any other races in that election that would be affected by tossing the entire ballot of the 65,000 voters?
If a candidate in those other races has conceded and the winner has taken the oath of office, can the election be changed?
Any other insight—cause and effect of dismissing the 65,000 ballots—would be appreciated.
An answer came in a NCSBE statement provided by Patrick Gannon, public information director of NCSBE:
The only contest that is subject to the election protest litigation is the supreme court associate justice contest. No other contest was challenged. Any remedy resulting from this election protest, therefore, would typically apply only to that contest. But since this is in the hands of the courts, we can’t predict exactly what they will do.
Additionally, the State Board of Elections and the courts considering post-election litigation in North Carolina have routinely interpreted the law to be that once a certificate of election is issued for a contest, it is final. Certificates of election have been issued in all 2024 contests, except for the supreme court contest. Again, however, we cannot predict what the courts will do.
From this corner of North Carolina politics, Griffin—at Berger’s inference—should drop the challenge and/or the courts should toss his push. It’s been going on since election day last fall, soon to be five months of dispute. All the while, Allison Riggs, a Democrat, sits on the North Carolina Supreme Court. It should remain that way.
It even appears Phil Berger thinks that should be the case. Maybe Berger is softening.