Time to fold 'em

We weren’t surprised when the NC Court of Appeals ruled in favor of their Republican colleague Jefferson Griffin’s challenge of some 60,000 who voted in November’s elections.

But their actual ruling was astonishing. They demanded that those 60,000 persons had 15 business days to prove they were, in fact, qualified to vote or else their votes would be thrown out.

What were these appellate judges smoking? Do they really believe this is possible? It is one of the most incredible and unreasonable verdicts ever issued. One of the judges opined that even one unlawful vote essentially “disenfranchises lawful voters.” Is he intimating that if one vote is cast unlawfully all votes should be disqualified?

Fortunately, the NC Supreme Court displayed more wisdom and put a stay on the panel’s decision. There was no indication what comes next, but let’s hope the Court of Appeals ruling is discarded.

Griffin maintains that the 700+ margin of victory for Allison Riggs tallied by the State Board of Elections and confirmed by recount was not fair because some 60,000 votes were ineligible. The voters’ registrations didn’t contain either the driver’s license number or the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number. Never mind this challenge had been made before the election and resolved. These same voters cast ballots in the primary election and perhaps previous elections.

If some (or even all) of these “ineligible” votes are thrown out does that mean they are also thrown out for other races in November’s elections, even though those contests may have been declared certified?

I went to the NC Board of Elections dashboard and studied November’s election outcomes to find just how serious a problem this might be. The only congressional race that fell within the 60,000 search parameter was the 1^st District race, where incumbent Democrat Don Davis beat Laurie Buckhout by 6,307. Wonder if any of Davis’ votes were “ineligible?”

No Council of State races fell within the parameter, but many legislative races did. In the North Carolina State Senate elections 2 were decided by fewer than 5,000 votes and 2 more by fewer than 500 votes. In Senate District 18, Terrence Everitt (D) beat Ashlee Adams by a mere 128 votes. And in District 42, Mrs. Woodson Bradley (D) defeated Stacie McGinn by just 209 votes. Were any of those votes ineligible?

The 120 seat House of Representatives really opened a can of worms. 10 races were decided by fewer than 6,000 votes, 4 by fewer than 2,000 votes and 4 by fewer than one thousand votes. It is feasible that the outcome of these 18 elections could have changed the partisan makeup of the House if ineligible votes were thrown out.

We could spend from now until Jesus comes again trying to ascertain how many of the 60,000 are truly ineligible. Perhaps we should just call for an entire November election do-over.

Yes, this is a ludicrous proposal, but it is no more ludicrous than Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to disenfranchise voters he believes would have voted for his opponent after the election was held.

You might remember a similar tactic was attempted by the NC Republican Party prior to the election. They claimed that 225,000 voter registrations should be disqualified, one of several attempts to challenge election rules and voting. They were nothing less than attempts by the GOP to discredit our elections. They went nowhere.

 Does Griffin’s claim ring a familiar bell?

Here’s my spin: We live in a culture where trust is increasingly rare. We don’t trust government. Don’t trust politicians. We don’t trust business, or religion or just about anything or anyone.

One thing North Carolinians have trusted is our elections. Repeatedly we have seen reviews, recounts and studies revealing that the amount of fraud in our elections is negligible. Nobody ever claimed any election was perfect, but our election laws are solid, the administration of elections has been remarkably free from miscreants and misdeeds and the vote counting (and recounting) is accurate.

Jefferson Griffin’s “sore loser campaign” is yet another blatant attempt to drive a wedge in the public trust of our elections. He demands to get his way after the votes have been counted. We ask once more. If we are going to disqualify any number of voters from the Supreme Court elections shouldn’t fairness dictate that we also throw them out for all elections, then recalculate who won and lost?

Can you see where we are headed? Are we really going to have lawsuit after lawsuit, appeal after appeal ad nauseum? Continued pursuit of this case is both costly and unjust.

Kenny Rogers, in his classic song, The Gambler, said it well: “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

Judge Griffin, it is time to fold ‘em.  Don’t make yourself or your political party more untrustworthy.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@carolinabroadcasting.com