Supreme Court lawsuit exposes GOP

On Friday, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled against Republican efforts to toss 65,000 ballots that were cast in November. In a reasonable world, Justice Allison Riggs would be declared the winner. GOP Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin has lost time and again in his effort to overturn the will of the voters, but he won’t give up. The North Carolina Republican Party issued a statement following the ruling that said, "We are confident this decision will be appealed and we will continue to support Judge Griffin in his pursuit of election integrity."

Griffin has suffered defeat after defeat, from losing the initial vote tally to losing numerous recounts to losing in court, but he’s banking on an ultimate victory based on partisanship, not fairness. His next appeal will be before the Court of Appeals where he is a judge. That court is dominated by Republicans and he hopes that he can get a favorable three-judge panel to hear his complaint. If he loses there, his case will end up before a GOP-controlled Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court of North Carolina gets the case, there will be six justices deciding it. Justice Riggs has recused herself since she is Griffin’s opponent. The remaining Democrat on the court, Justice Anita Earls, will likely vote against Griffin’s efforts to disenfranchise voters. Justice Richard Dietz was the only Republican who voted against an order blocking Riggs victory, so he’s likely to vote against Griffin’s appeal. Republican Justice Trey Allen voted to allow Griffin’s case to proceed but voiced skepticism of the merits. Those three justices could prevent Griffin from stealing the seat since four votes would be needed to allow Griffin to throw out the votes.

Three Republican justices have indicated that they believe Griffin’s complaint could have merit. Chief Justice Paul Newby, Justice Phil Berger, Jr., and Justice Tamara Barringer all signed an opinion stating that “There appear to be valid concerns that some of the State Board’s actions in this election may violate the law.” Newby’s wife and Barringer’s husband both gave maximum contributions to Griffin’s campaign.

The very nature of Griffin’s complaint undermines the GOP’s long-standing claim that they only care about election integrity. Griffin isn’t claiming that there’s any voter fraud. He’s not even contesting the ballots themselves. He’s claiming that clerical errors at local boards of elections and outdated voter registration forms should invalidate the votes of people who legitimately cast their ballots, most with voter IDs.

Most of the contested registration forms lack either a driver’s license number or the last four-digits of a social security number. Some of the people registered on forms that did not require either. Other people may have inadvertently left off the information but were approved by county and state election officials. Most have been voting for years, if not decades.

Regardless, North Carolina’s voter ID renders the information obsolete. The requirement is part of the Help America Vote Act from 2002. Republicans didn’t discover voter fraud until a Black man was elected President of the United States in 2008. Voter ID requires voters to present the same information that Griffin claims is missing from the forms. Griffin and the GOP are trying to disenfranchise voters based on clerical errors and technicalities that have little to do with protecting the sanctity of elections.

Griffin’s claim has nothing to do with integrity, but exposes Republicans’ lack of it. They’re using the tactics of the Jim Crow era to limit access to the ballot box and disqualify voters based on obscure rules to win elections. They are anti-democratic and anti-American. Griffin’s suit exposes them for who they are.