Pressure Mounts on NC Supreme Court Candidate to Drop Challenge of Election Results
Pressure mounts against Jefferson Griffin and the shameless defenders of his attempt to steal the election to the Supreme Court seat he clearly lost at the polls last November.
A “People vs. Griffin” campaign to expose Jefferson Griffin’s efforts to throw out the legally cast ballots of over 60,000+ North Carolina citizens is gathering attention. The multi-group campaign brought out a reported total of 5,000 North Carolina voters for 16 rallies in cities and towns around the state over the long Presidents’ Day weekend. The coordinated rallies captured media attention in every major media market of the state. A video from Common Cause NC recaps the rallies.
Lead Republican Criticizes Griffin
Of special note, the state’s most powerful Republican elected official, NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, has reportedly joined the critics. In his subscription newsletter “Anderson Alerts”, freelance journalist Bryan Anderson says that Senator Berger “suggested Griffin’s effort to remove voters over clerical issues [the allegedly missing Social Security numbers] was a bridge too far.”
“The equities are with the voters there,” Berger was quoted as telling reporters. “I don’t think that they had a way of knowing that that was a deficiency as far as their registration is concerned.”
Where the Case Stands
Despite this criticism and the widespread public and media condemnation of Griffin’s voter disqualification efforts, a divided NC Supreme Court last week voted to deny a request to hear the case on an expedited basis. The Court’s members voted 4-2 to deny Justice Allison Riggs’ request that the Court take up Griffin’s appeal of the trial court judge’s dismissal of his claims, without waiting for the case to move through the intermediate Court of Appeals stage first.
The NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE) and Justice Allison Riggs’ campaign both sought to dispense with the intermediate appeals stage. In contrast, the Griffin campaign argued for the slower path, despite previously having asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly without even letting it go to the trial court level. Griffin’s reasoning for that switch played a prominent role in the opinion written by Justice Anita Earls in her dissent from the majority’s denial of the request for an expedited review.
“Griffin’s opposition to the bypass petition begins by asserting that this court should not hear this case because, as a court of six members, we might split 3-3 leaving the lower court’s ruling as the final ruling in the case,” Earls wrote. “In other words, he asks us not to hear the case because he might lose. Such outcome-determined reasoning has no place in a court committed to the rule of law.”
Future of the Case
The case now moves to the NC Court of Appeals, where it will be heard by a three-judge panel. However that panel rules, their decision is certain to be appealed back to the state Supreme Court. Waiting in the wings is the federal court system, which has deferred ruling on the constitutional and federal voting rights law issues raised by this case until after the NC state courts have finished their review of the matter.
