Source: ProPublica
Almost two months after Election Day was held, Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin has continued to drag out his loss – shifting efforts to erase over 5,500 ballots cast by military personnel, their family members, and overseas voters.
Griffin is asking the state Supreme Court to consider his challenge to more than 5,500 ballots cast by voters who register and vote by absentee ballot under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absent Voting Act (UOCAVA). UOCAVA is a federal law that protects the voting rights of U.S. citizens serving in the military or living abroad.
According to WUNC, Griffin’s latest attempt to overturn the election results only covers UOCAVA ballots drawn from four heavily Democratic counties: Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, and Guilford.
In addition to the 5, 500 UOCAVA ballots, an analysis by independent journalist Bryan Anderson found that out of the 60,000 ballot challenges, Democratic ballots were disproportionately targeted, with Democrat voters being almost five times as likely as Republicans to have their ballots questioned by Judge Griffin.
“Active-duty members of the military who are serving our country overseas count on their rights under UOCAVA to vote and make their voice heard. The same is true for members of the foreign service and missionaries in the field,” Embry Owen, the campaign manager for Associate Justice Allison Riggs, told ProPublica. “Any attempt to silence these voters is a shame on North Carolina’s democracy.”
Reporting from ProPublica revealed that Griffin is asking the same court to disqualify the votes of around 5,500 people who voted in the same manner as he had just a few years ago.
According to ProPublica, as a member of the Army National Guard in 2019 and 2020, Griffin voted in the state elections using military absentee ballots. His two ballot requests were covered by the UOCAVA – much like the 5, 500 North Carolinians he is attempting to disqualify.
“Judge Griffin’s targeting of military and overseas voters from four heavily Democratic counties lays plain his goal: toss votes to retroactively win an election he already lost,” Owen told ProPublica.
The Federal Assistance Program states that over 2.8 million Americans eligible to vote live overseas, and many of them vote using this method, including thousands of North Carolinians.
“The right to vote is something Americans often take for granted, but as veterans, we know how precious it truly is. Judge Griffin knows this too and is choosing a different path,” Claude Murray, a member of Common Defense, told ProPublica. “It is shameful that he is now seeking to invalidate thousands of votes — including military members and their families — simply because he lost an election”.
