Six months and two days later
N.C. Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs is N.C. Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs for another eight years. Judge Jefferson Griffin, her Republican opponent, on Wednesday finally gave up his legal quest to change the rules of the 2024 election after the vote counting was over. Long over. Six months and two days after Election Day, he conceded.
Griffin challenged over 60,000 votes judged valid in every other race on the fall ballot. But Griffin remained behind by 734 votes after two recounts. (I observed ours.) But Griffin, the state Republican Party, and his attorneys would not take democracy for an answer. They pursued threir effort to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters (based on DOGE-level shoddy data mining) through the state courts, saw their challenge whittled down to under 10,000, then even fewer.
Mother Jones summarized:
On Monday, however, federal district court Judge Richard Myers, who was appointed by Donald Trump, overruled the state courts in North Carolina and ordered the state board of election to certify Riggs’ election. “You establish the rules before the game,” he wrote. “You don’t change them after the game is done.”
Riggs celebrated the ruling in a statement: “After millions of dollars spent, more than 68,000 voters at risk of losing their votes, thousands of volunteers mobilized, hundreds of legal documents filed, and immeasurable damage done to our democracy, I’m glad the will of the voters was finally heard, six months and two days after Election Day. It’s been my honor to lead this fight–even though it should never have happened.”
“This is a righteous victory for democracy and a clear defeat of political gamesmanship,” added DNC Chair Ken Martin. “For 200 days, Republicans in North Carolina sought to overturn the will of the people, hijack a state Supreme Court seat, and systematically undermine basic faith in our elections.”
Republicans failed to steal the seat, yes. But their effort to “systematically undermine basic faith in our elections” succeeded and continues. They got far enough with this post hoc effort that they may try it again elsewhere.
Ari Berman (“Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America”):
Even though Griffin was ultimately unsuccessful, his six-month effort to overturn the election did a tremendous amount of damage to the democratic process. He got much further than Trump did in 2020, convincing two state courts in North Carolina to throw out thousands of otherwise lawful votes after two recounts had affirmed Riggs’ victory and every other election from November had been certified. That will go a long way toward making election subversion the norm rather than the exception, especially in states, like North Carolina, where Republicans control the top courts and election boards.
Democratic State Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls called Griffin’s attempt to steal the election “a bloodless coup.” Voting rights activists referred to it as “a nonviolent version of January 6.” Just like Trump’s effort to overturn the election inspired election deniers to seize positions of power across the country, what played out in North Carolina could embolden other losing candidates to go to extreme lengths to contest future elections.
One wonders when we will hear Republican calls to impeach Myers.
What Griffin’s concession means is that the NC GOP is cutting its losses. Griffin risked his political life on this gambit. Likely at the urging of Republican strategists like Cleta Mitchell of Southern Pines. He spent months trying to overturn his election loss by throwing out tens of thousands of constituents’ votes from all parties. That effort has raised Griffin’s statewide name recognition, and not in a good way. He’s pissed off people he’d need to vote for him (Republicans included) when he’s up for reelection to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2028. We’ll make sure to remind voters if he runs. Meaning, he’s toast.
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