‘Democracy being defended.’ Griffin case comes full circle while entering a new chapter

by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press
February 7, 2025

RALEIGH — Over 100 people stood in a line wrapped around the 10th floor of the Wake County Courthouse on Friday — an hour before Jefferson Griffin made his latest attempt to remove over 60,000 voters from the count in the Republican’s continual bid for a seat on the state’s highest court. 

Some held bright green slips of paper declaring, “My vote matters.” Others debated how the N.C. Supreme Court may rule on the case, where it is expected to eventually return. Very few made it into the packed courtroom, whose maximum capacity was fewer than 60 people. 

The court hearing marked the latest chapter in what seems to be an endless saga. And as Griffin pushes for a decision that’s in his favor, others are pushing back. 

Outside, protesters stood on the courthouse steps for about an hour, holding signs, chanting “Every vote counts” and taking turns adressing the crowd. 

Lily Levin was on a Fulbright scholarship in Chile when she voted overseas, and said she wasn’t surprised to find that her ballot was being challenged by Griffin. 

“I think it’s the cynicism of growing up in a state that has been so extremely gerrymandered,” Levin explained. “My vote might be disenfranchised right now, that’s what we’re fighting for, but so many other people’s votes have been disenfranchised for so long.”

How we got here

After losing to Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 732 votes, Griffin filed a series of election protests to remove three categories of voters from the count. 

The first implicates 5,509 military and overseas voters who did not attach any photo identification to their ballot. The State Board of Elections contends that North Carolina law does not include these people in the recently implemented voter ID law. Griffin argues that the election board incorrectly interpreted the legislature’s intent when allowing these voters to cast ballots without photo ID. 

The second protest challenges 267 overseas voters who have never resided in North Carolina but are permitted to vote in the jurisdiction their parents were last eligible under state law. Griffin asserts that this law violates the state constitution’s residency requirement, and therefore should not have been followed. 

The third and maybe most significant protest challenges 60,273 voters who Griffin alleges are unlawfully registered to vote since their registration was accepted without a driver’s license or social security number due to a faulty voter registration form. The State Board of Elections says that voters can’t be punished for clerical errors, and had to take extra steps to prove their identity if they did not include either number under the federal Help America Vote Act. 

While the arguments are unique to each category, they fall along the same themes. Griffin believes that the State Board of Elections violated North Carolina law or the state constitution in each case by accepting these votes. 

On the other hand, the election board asserts the law was followed as it stood on Election Day, and that retroactively removing voters’ ballots from the count is unconstitutional.

Since December, Griffin’s election protests have tracked a convoluted journey through state and federal courts. Now, the case is back at the beginning: trial court. 

The Wake County Superior Court is expected to rule in Riggs’ favor. Appeals are anticipated afterward. 

Most expect the case to eventually return to the N.C. Supreme Court, where three justices have indicated they would deny Griffin’s request to remove votes from the count, two have shown a more positive reception and one has not shared his thoughts. 

Certain elements of the case remain under the jurisdiction of federal courts, but won’t come into play unless certain questions remain unresolved by the time the parties exhaust their state court options. 

Until then, the race holds an unusual distinction as the final election that has not been certified in the country. 

Griffin goes after voters

When Denise Carman moved back to Chatham County from Alamance County in 2020, she filled out a voter registration form. She did not include a driver’s license or social security number. Carman doesn’t know why, but she does know that she was allowed to vote every year since. Carman even served as a Chatham County election official.

Now, she is one of 26 impacted voters named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

“I’m very frustrated that myself and others have been called out,” she said. “I’m part of the lawsuit because I know this won’t deter me in the future, and I worry that if this is just allowed to happen, that it will deter people from voting — other people who aren’t as engaged in the process.” 

Felix Soto is also named in the suit. Soto, 18, was determined to participate despite being in Costa Rica for a fellowship. Solo requested a ballot, and included a photocopy of a passport just in case, but was informed by his local county board of elections that it wasn’t necessary. So when Soto resubmitted the ballot due to unrelated clerical issues, the photo ID was left out. 

Now, Griffin wants Soto’s ballot removed because of that.

“That was a slap in the face because I worked so, so hard to get my ballot in with all the different back and forth,” Soto recalled. “And my parents worked so hard, too. They’re so proud of me — that I am a voter, that I worked to have my voice heard — and this entire kerfuffle is an affront to all that I have worked for.” 

Griffin’s ‘baseless claims’

Not all voters have an equal chance of appearing on Griffin’s protest lists. For one, he only challenged those who voted early or by mail. 

Additionally, youth voters between the ages of 18 and 25 are over three times as likely to have their ballots challenged than those over 65, according to Duke’s Student Voting Rights Lab analysis. 

A disproportionate number of the 60,000 challenged because of their voter registration were people of color, unaffiliated voters or those who opted not to include their race, gender or ethnicity on their voter registration, according to a separate analysis conducted by Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper. 

Griffin’s protest concerning overseas voters only included people from four largely Democratic counties: Durham, Forsyth, Buncombe and Guilford. 

Audrey Megis has spent her entire life and career working to uplift Asian American voices like her own. She’s frustrated that after a record turnout for Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, Griffin is “attempting to cut those numbers down.” 

“I’m tired of candidates using my vote as a pawn in their political game and entertaining these baseless claims,” she said. 

Two years ago, Tanner Willeford watched as his wife sang “America the Beautiful” during her naturalization ceremony at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. 

It was the culmination of a “long, difficult process” that took thousands of dollars, five years of paperwork and interviews, Willeford said. 

After this year’s election, Willeford’s wife found out she was one of the voters on Griffin’s protest list. 

“To finally get the chance to vote after all that and then have it be challenged? It was crushing,” Willeford said Friday outside of the courthouse. 

Lori Barker stood in for her loved one on the courthouse steps. Her partner, a physician, had to work, she explained. They found out his vote was challenged after a Facebook friend posted about unexpectedly being on the list and encouraged everyone to check. 

“The spin in the news was that they were illegal votes, and it never would have occurred to me that he would have been one of the disenfranchised voters,” Barker said. 

After combing through the list, Barker found three other people she knew on her county’s list. She confirmed that they all voted in person with a valid photo ID.

Barker teared up as she spoke about her 9-year-old daughter, who still “believes in the goodness of the world.” 

“I want her to grow up in a country of democracy,” she said. “This is not about my candidate winning or my issue winning; it is about the democracy being defended. And unless we fight for it, I feel like it won’t exist in the future.” 

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

SUMMARY: The South Carolina Supreme Court has scheduled Brad Sigmon’s execution for March 7. Sigmon was sentenced to death for the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, whom he beat with a baseball bat. His lawyers requested a delay until they received autopsy results from a previous execution, raising concerns about pentobarbital administration. Sigmon can choose between lethal injection, electrocution, or a firing squad, but must decide by February 21 or face electrocution. South Carolina has resumed executions after a long pause, with 46 inmates executed since 1976; currently, 29 are on death row.

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Feeling emboldened, NC agencies taking ASAP approach to DEI efforts

by Lucas Thomae, Carolina Public Press
February 7, 2025

State departments and agencies have begun to scale back their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — some openly, others quietly.

State Auditor Dave Boliek and Labor Commissioner Luke Farley, both freshly-elected Republicans, announced their intentions to eliminate DEI from their internal policies in late January press releases.

Their announcements came on the heels of President Donald Trump issuing several executive actions that take aim at DEI efforts in the federal government. Nationwide polling suggests that Americans are about evenly divided on the issue. However, surveys from the Pew Research  Center in 2023 and 2024 show that public support for DEI initiatives might be waning.

Additionally, a number of top companies and major colleges have scrapped DEI programs despite making significant investments to establish them just years earlier.

Taking cues from the national party leadership, some Republican state officials like Boliek and Farley have taken aim at DEI since coming to power after the 2024 elections.

In a late January press release, Boliek argued that “the negative effects of DEI are backed by years of research and studies.”

“DEI is divisive and brings little-to-no return on investment of time and resources. My goal in the Auditor’s Office is to establish a professional workplace where individuals are valued and measured based on merit. Corporations across the country are abandoning DEI, as are colleges and universities, and it’s time for the government to do the same,” the release read.

But skepticism about DEI is not solely a Republican trait it seems.

Other agencies that fall under the umbrella of the executive branch — even those led by Democratic appointees — seem to have gotten cold feet over their diversity initiatives, which in some cases included hiring DEI-specific personnel.

The Departments of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Public Safety and Health and Human Services have all taken steps to distance themselves from DEI with little fanfare, Carolina Public Press has learned.

‘Diversity’ cut from the list

Both the Office of the State Auditor and the Department of Labor said they will no longer consider DEI as a performance measure for their employees.

Performance assessments for state government employees are structured according to a system created by The Office of State Human Resources. Each year, agencies must select certain values to use as a guideline to assess workers. Those values are derived from a list provided by the state.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion” was one of 22 included on the list from last year’s assessment cycle.

So when Boliek and Farley — who declined requests to be interviewed — announced they were eliminating DEI as a performance measure, it meant that “diversity, equity and inclusion” will not factor into upcoming employee reviews.

There’s no indication that either agency’s actions will affect the job status of any of their staff members. A spokesperson from Boliek’s office confirmed that there is nobody on staff with DEI-specific duties.

However, Boliek said in his press release that his office would be conducting an “internal review” in order to identify and scrub diversity, equity and inclusion standards across the department.

Party lines

Other Republican-run state agencies are following suit or already have been.

An official from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which has been led by Commissioner Steve Troxler since 2005, said that the agency also planned to drop DEI from its performance assessments.

The change, which mirrored the actions of the Department of Labor and Office of the State Auditor, was not publicly announced.

Meanwhile, spokespeople from the Department of Insurance and the Office of the State Treasurer told CPP that their internal policies had no DEI initiatives to eliminate.

“I applaud the actions taken by Auditor Boliek and Commissioner Farley,” said State Treasurer Brad Briner in a statement. “I am grateful to be in a position in which we are not forced to remove unfair performance evaluation metrics and can instead focus on valuing employees for the important contributions they make to our state.”

What’s in name?

State agencies headed by Democratic leadership, both elected and non-elected, have generally been more open about their efforts related to diversity and inclusion practices at their workplaces.

That may no longer be the case, as illustrated by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Public Safety removing references to DEI from within their offices beginning last year.

In 2024, the state health department changed the name of its DEI office to the “Office of People, Culture and Belonging.” The reason for the change was to “allow for a greater understanding and flexibility in viewing the work of the office,” the department explained in its annual Equal Employment Opportunity plan.

CPP requested interviews with top leaders, but was told by a spokesperson that “staff are not available.”

Additionally, the department did not respond when asked if it intends to continue operations at the Office of People, Culture and Belonging for the foreseeable future.

Similar changes are taking place at the Department of Public Safety. Since 2022, one of the department’s top leaders, Sherry Hunter, had been the deputy secretary for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Law Enforcement. Her job was to “help DPS achieve the departmental goal of reflecting and representing North Carolinians from all walks of life.”

In August, however, Hunter’s title was changed to “Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and Strategic Relations” although her job description remained the same.

She recently began a new role as “Deputy Secretary of Professional Standards” — a change which has yet to be announced publicly or reflected on the department website.

Spokeswoman Laura Hourigan told CPP that Hunter will be leading an entirely different section of the department in this new job. 

The department does not intend to hire a replacement for her previous DEI-specific position.

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.