This weekend, opinion pieces in WRAL and N.C. Newsline highlighted that Jefferson Griffin “remains in hiding while assaulting our democracy” with his baseless lawsuits seeking to disenfranchise 65,000 voters while having “no evidence” of wrongdoing by even a single voter.

Deborah Dicks Maxwell, President of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, underscored the threat Griffin poses to voters’ rights and North Carolina’s democracy, especially for vulnerable voters. As she notes, “Black voters are twice as likely to be challenged by Judge Griffin as white voters.”

NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield highlights that “Griffin is nowhere to be seen or found” and that as Griffin attempts an “unprecedented action to disenfranchise 60,000 of his fellow citizens… the least he could do is have the guts to stand behind it in public.” 

Read the highlights below:

NC Newsline: Commentary: GOP Supreme Court candidate remains in hiding while assaulting our democracy

By Rob Schofield

• Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin is seeking one of the most important and powerful public offices in North Carolina — a seat on the state Supreme Court.
  
• He’s also taken the extraordinary step of trying to overturn the election he lost for that seat last November by having more than 60,000 ballots thrown out. Thanks to his actions, North Carolina is once again in a negative national spotlight.

• And yet, despite having unleashed an enormous controversy that many nonpartisan experts say poses a serious threat to the sanctity of U.S. elections, and indeed, our democracy itself, Griffin is nowhere to be seen or found.
  
• Unlike the opponent who defeated him, incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, who has addressed Griffin’s actions openly and publicly, Griffin has remained in the shadows, hiding behind the excuse that he can’t discuss the controversy while it’s in litigation.
• And that in a word, is baloney. The bottom line: Judge Griffin is attempting an unprecedented action to disenfranchise 60,000 of his fellow citizens. The least he could do is have the guts to stand behind it in public.

WRAL: Opinion: Griffin seeks rules change after proper votes were counted

By Deborah Dicks Maxwell, President, North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

• Judge Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate, ran for and lost a seat on the highest court in our state [sic] the Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs in a race where more than 5.5 million ballots were cast. Rather than accepting his loss, he is trying to toss out the votes of more than 60,000 North Carolinians.

• Griffin disproportionately is targeting some of our most vulnerable voters. For example, Black voters are twice as likely to be challenged by Judge Griffin as white voters. Latino and younger voters are also more likely to be at risk of having their votes erased.
  
• Griffin’s attempt to undermine voters is not just far-fetched, it’s dangerous and threatens lasting damage to our state if successful.
  
• Griffin’s request for a re-do of how votes were counted in the 2024 General Election is especially awful here because he has presented no evidence showing that any of the 60,000 voters he has challenged were ineligible to vote or did anything but follow the rules applied at the time they voted. In short, he apparently wants a do-over simply because he lost, not because there is proof that there was anything wrong with the election.
  
• What we need now is for our courts to defend the rights of these 60,000 North Carolinians to participate in our democracy. No one – not a candidate, not a party, not the courts – should be able to disenfranchise voters simply because they don’t like the results of an election.