65K NC Voters Must Verify ID Or Have Votes Tossed In Court Race
In a recent ruling from a North carolina appeals court, over 65,000 voters in a crucial state Supreme Court race are being required to provide proof of identity to ensure their votes are counted. This decision could favor Republican candidate Judge Jefferson Griffin, who contested these ballots because the voters failed to meet identification requirements at the time of registration.
The court’s majority opinion emphasized the importance of accurate vote counts,suggesting that including unlawful ballots dilutes lawful votes,effectively disenfranchising legitimate voters. This race has drawn meaningful attention as it remains one of the last statewide contests to be resolved from the November 5 elections. On election night, Griffin initially led by 10,000 votes, but as additional ballots were counted, incumbent Democrat Justice Allison riggs eventually took a narrow lead.
The ruling holds the North Carolina State Board of Elections accountable for not properly informing voters about registration requirements. Consequently, affected voters are given a 15-day period to submit valid identification or face the risk of having their ballots excluded from the final count. Additionally, the court addressed challenges to overseas ballots cast without identification, allowing those voters the same remedy as in-state voters.
The ongoing battle over the Supreme Court seat could see further appeals, given the current political composition of the state court, which may influence the proceedings.
An appeals court in North Carolina is requiring more than 65,000 voters in the hotly contested state Supreme Court race to provide proof of identity in order for their votes to be counted. The ruling could potentially swing the outcome of the race in favor of Republican candidate Judge Jefferson Griffin.
The Friday decision was a win for Griffin, who challenged more than 60,000 ballots because the voters had not provided either a driver’s license or the last four digits of a Social Security Number upon registering, as required in North Carolina.
“The post-election protest process preserves the fundamental right to vote in free elections ‘on equal terms,’” the 2-1 majority opinion states. “This right is violated when ‘votes are not accurately counted [because] [unlawful] [ ] ballots are included in the election results.’ … The inclusion of even one unlawful ballot in a vote total dilutes the lawful votes and ‘effectively “disenfranchises”’ lawful voters” (brackets original).
This contest is the last statewide race to be decided in the country from the Nov. 5 election. On election night, Griffin was beating incumbent Democrat Justice Allison Riggs by about 10,000 votes. Over the next nine days, votes started trickling in that eventually swung the total in Riggs’ favor by 734 votes.
The Democrat-run North Carolina State Board of Elections has been trying to fast-track the certification of Riggs in this election, but the state Supreme Court has been blocking its ability to do so since Jan. 7.
While the court noted it could throw out all the ballots in question, it said that the North Carolina State Board of Elections was to blame for the incomplete registrations, as it did not make clear that the identification was required, as it was supposed to. The court is requiring that roughly 60,000 in-state voters be notified and given 15 days to provide the identification or have their ballots removed from the count.
“Based on precedent from the Supreme Court of North Carolina, this Court could order that those voters are without a remedy to cure their incomplete registrations,” the opinion states. “However, because the Board and the county boards did not comply with their statutory obligations to notify these voters who have ‘provide[d] enough information on the form to enable the county board to identify and contact the voter’ of the information defect in their registrations … we conclude these voters should be allowed a period of fifteen (15) business days after notice to cure their defective registrations.”
The order requires county boards of election to “omit from the final count the votes of those voters who fail to timely cure their registration defects.”
Griffin also challenged about 5,500 overseas voters who cast ballots without identification. The majority opinion determined that “their ballots have not been properly cast” as well, and they have been afforded the same ability to remedy their ballots as the in-state voters. The opinion again noted that they “could order that those voters are without a remedy to cure their failure to comply with the photo ID requirement.”
The smallest category of challenge from Griffin was “never resided” voters — a group of 267 voters who, very controversially, have been given the ability to vote in North Carolina despite never having lived there in their lives.
“[W]e conclude these purported voters are not eligible to vote in North Carolina, non-federal elections, and the votes cast by these purported voters are not to be included in the final count in the 2024 election,” the court decided.
The battle for the state Supreme Court seat is unlikely to be over. An appeal of the decision from Riggs could be heard by a full panel of the Appeals Court. With Griffin recused from the case, the ratio of Republicans to Democrats is 11-3. The appeal could also be heard by the state Supreme Court, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 5-1 with Riggs recused. Republican Justice Richard Dietz, however, did not side with the majority in two prior cases involving this election.
According to the Carolina Journal, the parties anticipate a 3-3 split at the Supreme Court, meaning the appeals decision would be upheld.
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