Allison Riggs Wins Election as Recounts End, Calls on Griffin to Drop Ballot Challenges and Concede
At the end of the second and final ballot recount in the contest for a seat on the NC Supreme Court, incumbent Associate Justice Allison Riggs won by 743 votes out of over 5.5 million cast statewide.
Justice Riggs was among the statewide candidates endorsed this year by the Conservation PAC of the NC League of Conservation Voters (NCLCV). The race for her NC Supreme Court seat was deemed to be a critical contest in part because of the ongoing legal debate over whether the state’s constitution bars extreme partisan gerrymandering as a violation of the “free and fair elections” clause. NCLCV believes that competitive elections are essential to holding legislators accountable for pro-polluter laws.
The Illegal Attempt to Change Election Results
The NC State Board of Elections (SBOE) last week found no evidence of irregularities or evidence supporting further recounts, and voted to deny all of challenger Judge Jefferson Griffin’s motions to disqualify a total of over 60,000 voters who legally cast ballots in the election. The board could have ordered corrected ballot tallies, more recounts or even new elections if it had found evidence of election law violations or irregularities calling into question the results of the protested elections. At the SBOE hearing, attorneys for Riggs and other challenged Democratic candidates urged the state board to throw out the protests. They called the protests an illegal attempt to change election rules after the votes have been cast and counted.
“The voters that [Griffin, the NC Republican Party, and three unsuccessful Republican legislative candidates] are challenging here today unquestionably are eligible voters,” said Will Robertson, an attorney representing three Democratic legislative candidates and the state Democratic Party. “These protests are not only facially invalid but they’re an affront to democracy and to the rule of law in North Carolina.”
Impact on NC House
In the legislative elections this year, North Carolina voters also narrowly broke the pro-polluter supermajority in the NC House. Success by any of the three challenging legislative candidates would reinstate that supermajority, threatening the ability of the governor to successfully pursue protection of the state’s clean air and waters by blocking new pro-polluter changes to state laws or budgets.
Call on Griffin to Concede
After the SBOE meeting, Riggs said she was grateful to have won by 734 votes, and grateful to elections officials who worked to ensure elections were well-run. “I took a solemn oath to uphold and defend our North Carolina constitution and our U.S. Constitution under the umbrella of which we all enjoy the fundamental right to vote,” she said. “And so I thought it important, as a constitutional officer, for the public to see me stand up and ensure that all lawful votes are counted.” Griffin did not attend the meeting. In a statement later, Riggs called on Griffin to respect the results and drop the protests against lawfully registered voters.
“Protesters are not here today asking you to correct irregularities,” Robertson added. “To be clear, they are here today asking you to overturn settled election law and to retroactively disenfranchise their neighbors, all of whom had a right to have their ballots counted.”
NCLCV calls on Griffin to Concede
“When Republicans lose, they try to overthrow the government and throw out legitimate ballots,” Said Dan Crawford, NCLCV’s director of governmental relations. “When Democrats lose, they graciously concede and do not conspire to disenfranchise voters. The moral of the story is, lose graciously. And as a judge, Jefferson Griffin should set the highest example of abiding by the law, rather than trying to twist it to steal an election he lost fair and square. It’s time for Jefferson Griffin to concede and go away.
“We at NCLCV know in order to have a safe environment for all North Carolinians, we need a democracy that represents all North Carolinians. We will not only continue to hold our leaders accountable for their decisions affecting our environment, but also their decisions affecting our democracy.”
Tell Jefferson Griffin to concede!
The requests to disqualify bundles of voters were repeats of requests rejected by the SBOE and state or federal judges prior to the election. Griffin and the other protesting losers have 10 days from last Wednesday to appeal the SBOE’s decisions to state court.
