The North Carolina Supreme Court issued an order on Tuesday blocking the state from certifying a winner in the race for a seat on the high court.
Granting the request of Republican Jefferson Griffin, who trails his opponent, Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, by 734 votes, the court’s Republican majority issued a temporary stay that will prevent the State Board of Elections from certifying Riggs as the winner.
Anita Earls, the only other Democrat on the court alongside Riggs, dissented, writing that “the public interest requires that the court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution.”
Riggs recused herself from the case.
The very court which Griffin aims to join will now hear his challenge of over 60,000 ballots cast in the election and potentially decide a winner in the race….
Category Archives: recounts
“Riggs responds to Griffin’s request to delay certification of the NC Supreme Court election”
Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs asked a federal judge to deny Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s request for a preliminary injunction in his election case.
Riggs, a Democrat, leads Griffin, a Republican, by 734 votes in the race to retain her seat on the state’s highest court.
A quick resolution to the case is in the public interest, Riggs’ brief says. Under state law, Riggs keeps her seat until the election is decided. But there’s a risk that someone, including Griffin, could argue that decisions are being made by an improperly elected official, the brief says.
“That risk is particularly unacceptable for election protests that seek to disenfranchise thousands of North Carolina voters by changing the rules after the election concludes.”
Griffin wants to throw out more than 60,000 votes he says were cast by people who are ineligible. Most of the ballots he objects to were cast by people he claims did not provide driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers on their voter registration applications. Republican lawyers argue these voters are not legally registered.
He has also challenged overseas and military voters because they did not submit photo IDs with their ballots, and has challenged overseas voters who have never lived in the state but whose parents were eligible North Carolina voters before they left the country.
The State Board of Elections has rejected all of Griffin’s protests, but has not yet certified the results. Griffin asked US District Judge Richard Myers II for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Board of Elections from certifying the results, which would mean Riggs’ reelection.
In the brief opposing the preliminary injection, a lawyer for Riggs wrote that those votes Griffin wants to throw out must be counted….
“A North Carolina Supreme Court Candidate’s Bid to Overturn His Loss Is Based on Theory Election Deniers Deemed Extreme”
Months before voters went to the polls in November, a group of election skeptics based in North Carolina gathered on a call and discussed what actions to take if they doubted any of the results.
One of the ideas they floated: try to get the courts or state election board to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by voters whose registrations are missing a driver’s license number and the last four digits of a Social Security number.
But that idea was resisted by two activists on the call, including the leader of the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network. The data was missing not because voters had done something wrong but largely as a result of an administrative error by the state. The leader said the idea was “voter suppression” and “100%” certain to fail in the courts, according to a recording of the July call obtained by ProPublica.
This novel theory is now at the center of a legal challenge by North Carolina appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican who lost a race for a state Supreme Court seat to the Democratic incumbent, Allison Riggs, by just 734 votes and is seeking to have the result overturned.
The state election board dismissed a previous version of the challenge, which is now being considered in federal court. Before the election, a Trump-appointed judge denied an attempt by the Republican National Committee to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls based on the same theory.
The latest case is getting attention statewide and across the country. But it has not yet been reported that members of the group that had helped publicize the idea had cast doubt on its legality….
he theory Griffin is citing originated with a right-wing activist, Carol Snow, who described herself to ProPublica in an email as “a Bona Fide Grade-A Election Denier.” Snow promoted it with the help of the state chapter of the Election Integrity Network, a national group whose leader worked with President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election. The network also was behind extensive efforts to prepare to contest a Trump loss this year in other states, as ProPublica has reported, as well as in North Carolina, according to previously unreported recordings and transcripts of meetings of the state chapter.
State election officials have found that missing information on a voter’s registration is not disqualifying because there are numerous valid reasons for the state’s database to lack that those details.
Those reasons include voters registering before state paperwork was updated about a year ago to require that information or using alternate approved documents, such as a utility bill, to verify their identities. What’s more, voters must still prove their identity when casting a ballot — most often with a driver’s license. “There is virtually no chance of voter fraud resulting from a voter not providing her driver’s license or social security number on her voter registration,” attorneys for the state election board wrote in response to the RNC lawsuit….
“Republican Appeals Court Judge Griffin asks the NC Supreme Court to throw out votes”
Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin asked the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to do what the state Board of Elections would not — throw out tens of thousands of votes on the belief that canceling them will elevate him to a seat on the same tribunal.
Griffin is seeking to toss more than 60,000 votes in his effort to unseat Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, the incumbent Democrat. Griffin is losing by 734 votes out of about 5.5 million cast.
The Board of Elections rejected his requests last week, with most of those votes falling along party lines with Democrats in the majority.
The Board has not yet certified the results, and Griffin wants the Supreme Court to step in before it does. He asks the court to decide before Monday.
Griffin wants to throw out ballots of more than 60,000 voters he claims did not supply a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number on their registration applications. Republican lawyers in the case claim these voters are not legally registered. Many of those voters have been registered and voting for decades.
“Thousands of such ballots were unlawfully cast in the election,” Griffin’s court filing says. “Judge Griffin anticipates that, if these unlawful ballots are excluded, he will win the election.”
Earlier this year, a federal judge partially dismissed a Republican National Committee and NC GOP lawsuit based on this argument. Republicans were seeking to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls, or have the court force them to vote provisional ballots.
In the Board’s written order, general counsel Paul Cox wrote that just because the numbers did not show up in the registration database doesn’t mean that the voter did not supply them.
Moreover, state law allows voters without these numbers to register, Cox wrote.
Griffin also wanted the Board to throw out votes by overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but whose parents last lived in the state. A state law passed more than a decade ago allows these voters to cast absentee ballots. State courts rejected a Republican Party lawsuit that sought to prevent the state from accepting these ballots.
In the Board’s one unanimous vote against Griffin, it said it would not reject military and civilian overseas ballots because those voters did not include photo ID. The Board’s own rule says those voters do not have to submit photos with their ballots. …
“Republican calls for second recount in NC Supreme Court race”
I’ve gotten a few questions about this. First, there was a request for a machine recount of the by-a-tiny-nose North Carolina Supreme Court election between incumbent Allison Riggs and challenger Jefferson Griffin. Then there was a request for a recount of samples of ballots, comparing the machine counts for those samples to hand counts. Then there was a challenge to the validity of more than 60,000 ballots that had been cast.
Leaving aside the merits of any of the claims in the final challenge (there are real questions about the accuracy of the claims in that challenge), the different procedures are all contemplated by state law, as different ways to ensure that the results were right. The first two recounts are designed to make sure that the ballots were tallied accurately (and so far, it looks like they really, really were, with 110 votes statewide changing on each side, out of 2.8 million votes apiece). The challenge procedure is designed to make sure that the ballots that were tallied should have been tallied.
In a race this tight, these types of procedures are to be expected. And so far, what they’re showing is how well the elections process works.
Tied MN House hinges on 14-ballot win in race with 20 destroyed uncounted votes
North Carolina: “GOP candidate protests the ballots cast by his opponent’s parents in state Supreme Court race”
WUNC:
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously Tuesday to certify the 2024 elections, except for a handful of contests under recount and protest. That includes the race for a seat on the state Supreme Court in which the Republican candidate has challenged the validity of more than 60,000 ballots, including two cast by his opponent’s parents.
Republican Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals trails Justice Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, in the race for Seat 6 on the state Supreme Court. But the margin between them— 625 votes — is close enough under state law to require the recount demanded by Griffin.
Griffin’s campaign has also 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 who have not resided in North Carolina but whose parents or legal guardians were eligible North Carolina voters before leaving the United States.
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 do not include the voter’s driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The basis for this protest is the same as one in a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee claiming 225,000 voters should be removed from the state’s rolls due to incomplete registration. A Donald Trump-appointed federal district court judge dismissed a main part of that lawsuit in October….
Breaking: Bob Casey Concedes in U.S. Senate Race in Pennsylvania
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) on Thursday dropped his bid for reelection, conceding to GOP challenger Dave McCormick, putting an end to one of the most hotly contested and expensive Senate races, and an end to the Scranton native’s 18-year career in the Senate.
“I just called Dave McCormick to congratulate him on his election to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate. As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last,” Casey said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “This race was one of the closest in our Commonwealth’s history, decided by less than a quarter of a point. I am grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make sure every eligible vote cast could be counted, including election officials in all 67 counties.”
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Nov. 7, but Casey had refused to concede, citing the large number of ballots still to be counted at the time.
Since the vote margin between McCormick and Casey was less than 0.5%, it triggered an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law. Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt estimated the cost of the recount would be more than $1 million. As county tallies began to trickle in, however, it did not appear Casey would pick up enough votes to clear McCormick’s lead of more than 17,000 votes. …
“Losing GOP candidate for NC Supreme Court challenges 60,000 ballots as recount starts”
News&Observer: Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court, requests a recount where he trails by 625 votes while also filing “a series of election protests on Tuesday challenging the validity of over 60,000 ballots cast across the state.”
His complaints, some of which have already been rejected by courts include:
- “[C]ounties improperly counted ballots from voters who voted early but died before Election Day.”
- Votes should be rejected from those “serving a felony sentence as of Election Day.”
- Votes should be rejected from individuals who failed to attach “a driver’s license number or Social Security number” to their voter registrations, even though state law does not require this.
- Votes from “military and overseas voters who have never resided in North Carolina” should be rejected despite laws that appear to permit this in certain circumstances.
“Gov. Josh Shapiro defends Sen. Bob Casey’s recount choice and points to Dave McCormick’s own failed recount”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the costs of accuracy in the vote are causing political fallout. Governor Shapiro reiterates that PA law provides for an automatic recount where the margin is below 0.5% in statewide races and that McCormick himself has invoked the right in the past. Casey currently trails by 0.25% of the vote.
“‘PA doesn’t need to waste millions of tax dollars on a recount for the US Senate that won’t change the outcome of Election Day,’ Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), the top Republican in the state Senate, wrote on X last week. ‘Protect our tax dollars and tell Senator Casey to stop. McCormick won.’”
“Bucks County board chair says comment about violating election law has been misinterpreted”
Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Diane Ellis-Marseglia, the Bucks County Commissioner, has apologized for the “upset and confusion” caused by her defiant comments last week in which she said:
“People violate laws any time they want,” she added. “So, for me, if I violate this law it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
It is perhaps worth reminding everyone that the intermediate appellate court in Pennsylvania held that not counting the misdated ballots was a violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Supreme Court has not upheld that decision, but the defiance was to an order directing that the implications of that decision were not to be experimented with during the 2024 Election. No doubt one reason for that order is the overhang of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rather aggressive stance toward state courts under the new independent state legislature doctrine.
WaPo Editorial: “Democrats thumb their nose at the rule of law in Pennsylvania” (Recount Starts Today)
Before the Nov. 5 election, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that provisional ballots must be signed in two required places and that mail-in votes must be dated. Yet elected Democratic officials in Philadelphia and three other counties — Bucks, Centre and Montgomery — voted this week to defy these and other court decisions at the request of lawyers for Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who trails GOP challenger Dave McCormick by about 24,000 votes, with almost all of the roughly 7 million ballots cast having been counted. These Democrats’ decisions will almost certainly be overturned on appeal, but the mere attempt to defy judicial rulings is corrosive to democracy and invites similar behavior in future elections.
Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, offered this breathtaking rationalization on Thursday: “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” she said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
Democrats would surely protest if a Republican commissioner made the same statement to justify tipping the scales for their party’s Senate nominee — and they would be right. Elections need rules, established in advance of the voting, and those rules must be applied equally and consistently. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, by the way, includes five justices elected in partisan elections as Democrats and just two elected as Republicans. Even if that partisan balance were reversed, however, the court’s authority would be equally legitimate….
Elsewhere, two Republican Senate candidates are also refusing to concede their apparent defeats: Eric Hovde in Wisconsin and Kari Lake in Arizona. Democrats in both states are attacking them as sore losers. Fortunately, Mr. Casey, Mr. Hovde and Ms. Lake, are exceptions among losing candidates this year. The vast majority, including downballot Republicans in tight races, have accepted defeat, though the story might well be different had Donald Trump lost and cried fraud.
The recount starts today because the margin is within the statutory limit for a count. McCormick currently leads by more than 17,000 votes.
CORRECTED LINK to FILING: Breaking: Republicans File Lawsuit Directly in Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Asking Court to Issue Order Today Directing All 67 PA Counties Not to Count Undated/Misdated But Timely Absentee Ballots (Relevant to McCormick-Casey Senate Race)
See this filing. (Corrected link to filing)
Whatever one can say of the merits of the counting of such ballots and of this lawsuit (which makes a bizarre Purcell Principle argument), this issue, and statewide uniformity, needs to be resolved before the next election. We are very lucky the presidency is not riding on this question (something I and other election law specialists were very worried about).
PA GOP Senate Candidate McCormick Files Suit Against Bucks County for Counting Misdated/Undated But Timely Mail-In Ballots, as McCormick-Casey Race Goes to Likely Recount
The U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick is headed for a statewide recount, as counties continued Wednesday to sort through outstanding ballots and the campaigns jousted over which ones should count.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead.
A noon deadline passed Wednesday for Casey to waive his right to a statewide recount and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s top election official, Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, announced that preliminary results had triggered a legally required statewide recount.
As of Wednesday, McCormick led by about 28,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots counted — inside the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law….
Adam Bonin, a lawyer representing the Casey campaign in Philadelphia, said Republicans were aggressively and systematically challenging the provisional ballots of registered Democrats, delaying the vote counting process.
“What we are seeing this year is more organized, more disciplined, more directed and more comprehensive than what we saw in 2020,” Bonin said.
McCormick’s campaign consultant, Mark Harris, said large Democratic-controlled counties were dragging out the process by not adding the results of processed ballots to vote totals.
The McCormick campaign was challenging provisional ballots that it is allowed to challenge under the law, Harris said.
“This is clearly an effort to use lawfare to chip away at our lead,” Harris said. “This is not going to work. Dave McCormick is the senator-elect and will be the senator.”
Counties, meanwhile, were busy Wednesday processing tens of thousands of provisional ballots and hearing challenges to some of them by lawyers for Casey, McCormick and the state parties. A provisional ballot is typically cast at a polling place on Election Day and is separated from regular ballots in cases when elections workers need more time to determine a voter’s eligibility to vote….