Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to reverse his razor-thin loss for a state Supreme Court seat by disqualifying the ballots of more than 66,000 voters suffered a blow when a Wake County judge tossed his lawsuit Friday. 

In a one-page decision issued after hearing arguments from lawyers on both sides of the dispute, Superior Court Judge William Pittman wrote he found no reason to overturn the state Board of Elections decision in December to declare incumbent Allison Riggs the winner by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast.

That ruling followed three recounts demanded by Griffin, himself an appellate judge. Griffin, backed by a state and national Republican Party team, had launched a campaign to disqualify ballots that he claimed shouldn’t have been counted because the voters didn’t fully comply with North Carolina voter-registration law. The great majority of the alleged violations were missing voter ID records, which the Board of Elections and other courts had determined weren’t required.

Griffin’s team showed no evidence of voter fraud, nor did the targeted voters know their ballots had been questioned. 

“The Board’s decision was not in violation of constitutional provisions, was not in excess of statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency, was made upon lawful procedure, and was not affected by other error of law,” Pittman wrote in one of three nearly identical orders rejecting the challenge. 

Pittman’s order can be appealed, but opposition to his continued effort is building even within the Republican ranks because of the backlash it has generated.

Griffin’s challenge reached the state Supreme Court last month, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority. 

In a vaguely written 6-0 order with Riggs recusing herself, the high court tossed Griffin’s case back to where it started in Wake County. The justices ruled the case needs to follow the traditional path through the appellate process rather than jumping directly to the state Supreme Court.

Similarly, the Elections Board’s parallel attempt to move the case out of the reach of the state Supreme Court to federal court made it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, before being redirected to the North Carolina courts for lack of federal jurisdiction. 

Analysts have found that the groups of voters Griffin has targeted tended to lean toward Democratic Party candidates, which meant that Griffin would likely prevail if they were disqualified. 

The largest of the groups included more than 60,000 ballots cast during early voting. The second group consisted of voters who live overseas or who serve in the military. The third included a small cohort of overseas residents who typically are family members of military personnel and who don’t live – and may never have lived – in North Carolina. 

Recently, the investigative news site ProPublica discovered that Griffin himself had used a military absentee ballot to vote in two state elections when he was deployed as a member of the North Carolina National Guard.

In a brief filed to the state Supreme Court, Griffin asked that a recount should start by focusing on the overseas and military ballots cast in just four counties – Buncombe, Forsyth, Guilford and Durham. These are among the most-heavily Democratic-leaning electorates in the state. Buncombe voters voted more than 2-1 for Riggs.

Griffin said he was confident that by disqualifying this bloc of voters in these four counties, he would prevail in a recount.

But the tactic ignited fury among impacted voters, especially those who serve in the military and diplomatic posts.

Typical of these is Air Force Col. Bobby Buckner, a registered Republican who commands a squadron at a U.S. base and who voted an absentee ballot in Buncombe County. 

“I would caution this candidate that eroding or challenging our rights to vote because someone does not like the outcome, goes against the very reason I chose to serve my country: freedom and the ability to have a voice,” Buckner previously told Asheville Watchdog.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Tom Fiedler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter and dean emeritus from Boston University who lives in Asheville. Email him at tfiedler@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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