Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to reverse his razor-thin loss for a state Supreme Court seat by disqualifying the ballots of more than 66,000 voters suffered a blow when a Wake County judge tossed his lawsuit Friday.
In a one-page decision issued after hearing arguments from lawyers on both sides of the dispute, Superior Court Judge William Pittman wrote he found no reason to overturn the state Board of Elections decision in December to declare incumbent Allison Riggs the winner by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast.
That ruling followed three recounts demanded by Griffin, himself an appellate judge. Griffin, backed by a state and national Republican Party team, had launched a campaign to disqualify ballots that he claimed shouldn’t have been counted because the voters didn’t fully comply with North Carolina voter-registration law. The great majority of the alleged violations were missing voter ID records, which the Board of Elections and other courts had determined weren’t required.
Griffin’s team showed no evidence of voter fraud, nor did the targeted voters know their ballots had been questioned.
“The Board’s decision was not in violation of constitutional provisions, was not in excess of statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency, was made upon lawful procedure, and was not affected by other error of law,” Pittman wrote in one of three nearly identical orders rejecting the challenge.
Pittman’s order can be appealed, but opposition to his continued effort is building even within the Republican ranks because of the backlash it has generated.
Griffin’s challenge reached the state Supreme Court last month, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority.
In a vaguely written 6-0 order with Riggs recusing herself, the high court tossed Griffin’s case back to where it started in Wake County. The justices ruled the case needs to follow the traditional path through the appellate process rather than jumping directly to the state Supreme Court.
Similarly, the Elections Board’s parallel attempt to move the case out of the reach of the state Supreme Court to federal court made it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, before being redirected to the North Carolina courts for lack of federal jurisdiction.
Analysts have found that the groups of voters Griffin has targeted tended to lean toward Democratic Party candidates, which meant that Griffin would likely prevail if they were disqualified.
Opponents at a rally in Raleigh last month protested state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s effort to eliminate 66,000 ballots cast by North Carolina voters.// Photo credit: North Carolina Democratic Party
The largest of the groups included more than 60,000 ballots cast during early voting. The second group consisted of voters who live overseas or who serve in the military. The third included a small cohort of overseas residents who typically are family members of military personnel and who don’t live – and may never have lived – in North Carolina.
Recently, the investigative news site ProPublica discovered that Griffin himself had used a military absentee ballot to vote in two state elections when he was deployed as a member of the North Carolina National Guard.
Griffin said he was confident that by disqualifying this bloc of voters in these four counties, he would prevail in a recount.
But the tactic ignited fury among impacted voters, especially those who serve in the military and diplomatic posts.
Typical of these is Air Force Col. Bobby Buckner, a registered Republican who commands a squadron at a U.S. base and who voted an absentee ballot in Buncombe County.
“I would caution this candidate that eroding or challenging our rights to vote because someone does not like the outcome, goes against the very reason I chose to serve my country: freedom and the ability to have a voice,” Buckner previously told Asheville Watchdog.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Tom Fiedler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter and dean emeritus from Boston University who lives in Asheville. Email him at tfiedler@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-18 14:16:00
(The Center Square) – Planning and response to Hurricane Helene with early voting already underway has been deemed worthy of an award for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Fifty-three programs from 258 nominations earned the Exemplary Contingency Planning and Emergency Response Efforts award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Additionally, election boards in the counties of Buncombe, Currituck, Durham and Wake won 2024 Clearinghouse Awards, and those in Durham, Rockingham and Union counties earned honorable mention.
Helene killed 107 and caused an estimated $60 billion damage.
The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It dissipated over the mountains of the state and Tennessee, dropping more than 30 inches in some places and over 24 consistently across more.
Election Day was six weeks away. The disaster area declared included 25 counties and coordination with the state board; county boards; lawmen on the federal, state and local levels; the state National Guard; the U.S. Postal Service; and information technology professionals on multiple levels.
Voter turnout in the 25 counties was 74.9%, a tick higher than the state average of 72.6%.
“We are extremely proud of the efforts of our state’s election officials and our partners to pull off a successful election under the most trying of circumstances,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the state board’s executive director. “Hundreds of thousands of western North Carolinians were able to vote in the important 2024 election because of state board planning, along with the hard work and resiliency of county election officials and the invaluable assistance of our emergency management and law enforcement partners.”
The award is a different kind of light for the state board.
Between July 22 and Sept. 12, seven lawsuits were filed against the state board of Democrats Alan Hirsch, its chairman, Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen; and Republicans Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis; and Bell. More followed the election and are still unresolved along with the state Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin.
SUMMARY: U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident mistakenly deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador. Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, traveled to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia, who has been held for over a month at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). The Trump administration acknowledged the deportation error. Despite challenges in securing a meeting, Van Hollen met Abrego Garcia and shared an update with his wife. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele mocked the meeting, commenting that Abrego Garcia would remain in custody.
SUMMARY: In Disney’s “Magic of Storytelling” podcast, Thumper discovers a robin’s egg after a storm. He and his four sisters—Trixie, Tessy, Daisy, and Ria—worry about the egg being cold and try to keep it warm with leaves. As they debate the best approach, they decide to find the mama robin for help. Meanwhile, Thumper and Daisy attempt to cheer the egg by singing and dancing. Eventually, the sisters return with a nest just as the mama robin arrives. The egg hatches, bringing joy to the bunnies as they celebrate their teamwork and caring efforts.
Thumper the bunny is hopping along one day and finds a special egg! Soon, he and his family are set out on an adventure to find the egg’s Mama.
