Griffin emphasizes overseas voters with no photo ID in latest NC Supreme Court filing

Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin emphasized in his latest court filing the 5,509 overseas voters who provided no photo identification when they cast ballots in the November election. Griffin suggested that a court order throwing out those votes could swing the election result in his favor.

With those votes tossed out, the state Supreme Court never would have to address another 60,540 ballots Griffin challenged in the recent election, his lawyers argued.

That was a key point in a 119-page brief Griffin filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Court. The high court set a Tuesday deadline for Griffin as it prepares to consider his request to issue a writ of prohibition against the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Griffin wants the high court to block the elections board from counting “unlawful” ballots.

The court voted, 4-2, to issue a temporary stay in the case on Jan. 7.

Without a more permanent court order in Griffin’s favor, the state board is likely to certify appointed incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs as the race’s winner. Riggs leads Griffin by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast in the recent election. Recounts confirmed Riggs’ lead.

The 4th US Circuit of Appeals is also addressing Griffin’s election protests. That court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 27.

“The State Board is an administrative agency that has broken the law for decades, while refusing to correct its errors,” Griffin’s lawyers wrote to the state Supreme Court. “This lawlessness was brought to the Board’s attention back in 2023 and again in 2024, both before the 2024 general election, but the Board refused to follow the law. Now those chickens have come home to roost.”

“At bottom, this case presents a fundamental question: who decides our election laws? Is it the people and their elected representatives, or the unelected bureaucrats sitting on the State Board of Elections? If the Board gets its way, then it is the real sovereign here. It can ignore the election statutes and constitutional provisions, while administering an election however it wants,” Griffin’s court filing added.

Griffin challenges more than 66,000 ballots in three different categories. Yet the latest court filing suggested that the state Supreme Court could “phase its treatment of the protests, dealing with one type at a time.”

“By dealing with the question of photo identification for overseas voters first, for instance, the Court may be able to moot the rest of the petition,” Griffin’s lawyers argued.

The court filing labeled the 5,509 overseas voters with no photo ID the “primary category of protests at issue.”

“State law requires overseas voters to submit photo identification along with their absentee ballots, just like domestic voters. But the State Board decided to accept overseas absentee ballots without accompanying identification, in violation of state law,” Griffin’s lawyers argued.

Griffin suggested that the Supreme Court focus first on the overseas ballots.

“[T]his Court could phase its handling of Judge Griffin’s election protests by treating them in succession instead of all at once. By reviewing one set of protests at a time, the Court could determine that a first set of protests was ‘successful’ (i.e., meritorious and likely outcome-determinative) and order a re-tabulation of the vote count before deciding whether it needs to address the other protests,” Griffin’s lawyers wrote.

“If, after re-tabulation, the first set of protests changes the election’s outcome, then it would moot the other protests. The other protests would merely increase the prevailing candidate’s margin,” the court filing continued.

The state Supreme Court could focus first on overseas voters lacking photo ID. “If the Court agrees with the protest’s merits, then it would order the State Board to tabulate the votes with these illegal ballots removed, while holding the rest of the petition in abeyance and keeping the temporary stay in place,” Griffin’s lawyers explained.  

If the new vote totals fail to wipe out Riggs’ lead, Griffin suggests moving next to the 267 voters who cast votes in the Nov. 5 election though they have never lived in North Carolina. Only if removing those two categories of ballots fail to change the election’s outcome would the Supreme Court then turn to the other 60,273 challenged ballots. Those ballots were cast by voters who registered to vote when the state elections board did not require them to provide a driver’s license number of last four digits of a Social Security number.

“Ultimately, the General Statutes do not dictate how to stage the handling of multiple election protests,” Griffin’s lawyers wrote. “The goal is simply to determine the lawful winner. Thus, this Court has the discretion to craft relief within the statutory framework. Judge Griffin leaves it to the Court to fashion the most appropriate remedy.”

A state Supreme Court order calls for the State Board of Elections to respond to Griffin’s arguments by Jan. 21. Griffin can file a final reply by Jan. 24. The high court has set no additional dates for consideration or action on the dispute.

Without a final election result, Riggs would continue service as a state Supreme Court justice when the court hears its next set of cases on Feb. 11.

As the election dispute proceeds through North Carolina’s highest court, lawyers for Griffin, Riggs, the State Board of Elections, and left-of-center activist groups working with Democratic operative Marc Elias’ law firm are all participating in proceedings at the 4th Circuit.

The first set of Appeals Court briefs are due Wednesday, with reply briefs due Jan. 22, and oral arguments in Richmond, Virginia, on Jan. 27.

The post Griffin emphasizes overseas voters with no photo ID in latest NC Supreme Court filing first appeared on Carolina Journal.

 

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