Source: WUNC
In a desperate effort to salvage a losing campaign, Republican Jefferson Griffin has challenged the validity of more than 60,000 ballots, including two cast by his opponent’s parents.
Griffin, a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, currently trails Justice Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, in the race for Seat 6 on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Riggs finished 734 votes ahead of Griffin. A statewide recount recently confirmed this margin.
In addition to calling for a recount, Griffin’s campaign has filed protests across the state, claiming tens of thousands of ballots should be disqualified for a host of reasons. The claims include ballots allegedly cast early by people who subsequently died before Election Day, ballots cast by people who haven’t completed the terms of a felony conviction, and ballots cast by overseas citizens.
However, the vast majority of ballot protests are aimed at what the Griffin campaign claims are cases of incomplete voter registrations. According to those protests, these ballots should be disqualified because the registration data does not include the voter’s driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires the inclusion of either a voter’s driver’s license number or Social Security number on registration forms. But that does not mean a voter whose registration form does not contain either of those numbers isn’t eligible to vote.
In some cases, eligible voters might have registered properly before the passage of HAVA. In other cases, a voter might have provided the information, but a poll worker might have failed to enter the data.
People can also register to vote during the early voting period by providing a HAVA document, such as a utility bill, that does not contain either a driver’s license or Social Security number.
The North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have also filed lawsuits claiming 225,000 voters should be removed from the state’s rolls due to incomplete registration. A Trump-appointed federal district court judge dismissed a main part of that lawsuit in October.
Embry Owen, campaign manager for Allison Riggs, called the ballot protests a “last-ditch effort to deny the will of voters across the state.” Owen also said the Riggs campaign is confident the recount will confirm the incumbent’s victory over Griffin.
The NCGOP sent out postcards to individual voters informing them that their vote could be protested. Owen criticized the move for sowing confusion and frustration among voters who cast their ballots in good faith to make their voices heard. Among those voters are Allison Riggs’ parents, whose ballots are being challenged under the pretext of incomplete registration.
Justice Riggs has declared victory in the race and said “North Carolinian voters have spoken” following the conclusion of the statewide recount.
“North Carolinian voters have spoken, and their votes have been counted and recounted,” Riggs said in a press release. “I continue to feel gratitude beyond measure for the trust they have placed in me, and for the election workers who have worked so diligently and competently in this election and in these post-election processes. I look forward to continuing to serve our state without fear or favor.”
