National Democratic Party boss: GOP's challenge to 60,000 NC voters 'egregious assault' on democracy
North Carolina’s still-unresolved election for a seat on the state Supreme Court is picking up increased national attention as Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to steal a seat on the court through claims of voter fraud — a strategy critics fear could inspire nationwide efforts to overturn future elections.
The head of the national Democratic Party, Jaime Harrison, spoke to reporters Monday about what he called an "egregious assault" on voting rights.
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"The ability of Americans to vote — our most sacred right — is now once again under attack by Republicans," Harrison said. "The ground-zero of this fight in early 2025 lies in the great state of North Carolina."
In the Supreme Court race in question, Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs appears to have beaten her Republican opponent Jefferson Griffin. Initial election results and subsequent recounts show her up by a fraction of a percent, only about 700 votes.
The race hasn’t been called in Riggs’ favor, however, as Griffin has gone to court trying to get the ballots of more than 60,000 voters thrown out. A Griffin victory would shift the court’s balance of power from a 5-2 GOP majority to 6-1, and would further frustrate Democrats' efforts to eventually flip back control of the high court.
Harrison and others said they see what's happening in North Carolina as a test case: A legal theory that, if it's successful, could potentially be used to overturn election results anywhere in the U.S. in future elections.
"If they are successful in this scheme, there will be copycat lawsuits across the country for races where they don’t like the result," former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Monday in the call with Harrison.
Republicans say they believe state elections officials failed to collect identifying information on the 60,000 voters in question and therefore can’t be sure those voters are who they say they are.
Although federal courts rejected that argument in a separate lawsuit during the 2024 elections — and ruled that all the voters in question should be allowed to vote — Griffin’s campaign and other GOP officials are hoping courts will now decide that those voters actually should’ve been ruled ineligible.
'Systematic issues'
Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party, said Griffin isn't just randomly picking voters to challenge. Instead, he is basing the challenges on public records from the State Board of Elections — which Mercer said should’ve fixed the voter identification issues prior to the election to avoid situations like this.
"The systemic issues perpetuated by the State Board of Elections have not been refuted or resolved," Mercer said.
Griffin sued after the State Board of Elections rejected his effort to throw out the 60,000 ballots in a series of votes. One of the votes against Griffin was unanimous, but the rest were handed down along partisan lines: 3-2 decisions by the board, which has three Democratic members and two Republican members.
The board's chairman, Alan Hirsch, said at the time that Griffin's request to throw out ballots after the election had ended was "anathema to the democratic system." Mercer said it deserves a more complete examination in court.
"Democrats seek to short-circuit the rule of law for their preferred outcome with increasingly incendiary rhetoric," Mercer told WRAL Monday. "That is not helpful and does much more to weaken trust in our elections than seeing through these protests as prescribed by state law. Cooper in particular bears significant burden since he appointed NCSBE's majority."
The former governor sees it differently. If Republicans are successful in their efforts to throw out the ballots at this stage, Cooper said, "voters in North Carolina will be unable to walk out of a voting booth ever again and feel confident their vote will count."
Test case?
If the ballots are thrown out, Griffin has said in legal filings, he believes will end up winning the race.
Harrison said Monday that's because the 60,000 voters the GOP is targeting disproportionately include women and Black people.
Anderson Clayton, who chairs the state Democratic Party, made that same claim. She also predicted that if Griffin's strategy succeeds this year, Republicans would try it on a larger scale in the future.
"This time it's 60,000 ballots," she said. "Next time, it's 100,000 ballots, and then it's 250,000 ballots, until no votes get counted. What's the point of voting, if Republicans in North Carolina are allowed to do this?"
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