Yesterday, North Carolina Supreme Court GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin filed legal action with the very court he seeks to occupy, asking the court to prevent the certification of his opponent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ victory in November’s state Supreme Court race. In response to North Carolina Republicans’ continued attacks on democracy, DNC Executive Director Sam Cornale issued the following statement:

“In what has become a month-long, anti-democratic campaign at taxpayers’ expense against Justice Allison Riggs, who has extended her election lead after multiple recounts, North Carolina Republican Jefferson Griffin now seeks to weaponize the very institution he asked North Carolina voters to elect him to. Griffin is making a mockery of the system he wishes to represent – demanding that the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court cancel the lawfully cast ballots of thousands of North Carolinians and simply hand him a seat on the bench. His craven attacks on North Carolina voters are an affront to this country’s foundational values of democracy and the rule of law.”

REMINDER: Since Election Day, North Carolina Republicans have attempted to disqualify over 60,000 ballots and overturn Justice Allison Riggs’ victory in their relentless pursuit of power. 

New York Times: “This Race Was Decided by 734 Votes. The G.O.P. Wants to Disqualify 60,000 Ballots.”

“A lengthy recount of more than 5.5 million ballots from the November election that ended last week showed that an incumbent Democrat on North Carolina’s state Supreme Court, Allison Riggs, held a 734-vote edge over Jefferson G. Griffin, a Republican judge on the state Court of Appeals.

“Judge Griffin has not given up. He is protesting the results of the entire election to the State Board of Elections, arguing that many voters were ineligible to cast ballots.

“Judge Griffin’s protest argues that voters whose registration forms have no numbers should not count in this election. Among those voters are Ms. Riggs’s parents.”

Despite multiple recounts confirming Justice Riggs’ electoral lead and the state Board of Elections dismissing Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s previous protests as ‘anathema to the democratic system,’ Griffin refuses to concede. Now he is asking the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court to hand the seat to him. 

News & Observer: “The State Board of Elections, voting mostly along party lines, agreed with Riggs and dismissed all of Griffin’s protests last week. 

“‘The idea that someone could have been registered to vote, came to vote and then has their vote discarded is anathema to the democratic system and simply cannot be tolerated,’ Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, said. 

“The majority of Griffin’s protests revolve not around specific allegations of fraud, but rather legal arguments about voter eligibility which have so far been rejected by state and federal courts.”

Democracy Docket: “The protests, and the motion, seem to mark an eleventh-hour bid from Griffin to gain an advantage in the race against Riggs. The results of the initial machine count put Riggs ahead of Griffin by 623 votes. A machine recount requested by Griffin gave Riggs an even bigger lead.” 

Slate: “The North Carolina GOP’s Latest Ploy to Steal a State Supreme Court Seat”

“Griffin argues that some votes shouldn’t count because of voter registration forms that didn’t include a Social Security or state ID number, as federal law requires. But he disregards other provisions of the law that say a voter can also provide an ID number or identifying document when they vote. The state elections board voted unanimously (Republicans and Democrats) to keep these voters on the rolls.

“In fact, a federal judge appointed by President-elect Donald Trump rejected this argument before the election. And he warned that a ruling to bar hundreds of thousands of people from voting, just days before the election, would ‘significantly alter the allocation of power … away from a democratic form of government.’ The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision.

“The GOP majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court is possibly the most partisan high-court majority in the country. One justice, Phil Berger Jr., has repeatedly heard lawsuits against his father, Senate leader Phil Berger, and ruled in his favor. The chief justice has made multiple contributions to nonjudicial Republican candidates, another flagrant violation of ethics rules. And Justice Tamara Barringer is herself a former GOP legislator. These justices have rubber-stamped the Republican Legislature’s voter suppression, upended early voting to help Trump’s presidential campaign, and legalized gerrymandering—a ruling that handed control of Congress to the GOP in this year’s election.”

This latest anti-democratic ploy from North Carolina Republicans comes one week after state Republicans in the legislature passed measures to boost their political power and diminish incoming Democrats’ authority in a bill meant to provide hurricane relief funding to North Carolinians. 

NBC News: “North Carolina GOP lawmakers override veto of bill to strip power from incoming Democratic officials”

“The GOP-led state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted along party lines to override outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation that is ostensibly geared towards hurricane relief, but also weakens the authority of statewide offices Democrats won in last month’s election, including governor and attorney general.”