North Carolina Republicans trying to steal another election
By 
Partisan gerrymandering is inconsistent with democracy on its face, but is particularly bad because when parties simply write themselves into power irrespective of what voters prefer it tends to breed further anti-democratic conduct. The North Carolina Republican Party is a case in point:
On Monday, Congress certified the results of the 2024 presidential election in routine fashion. Some concluded that, due to Trump’s victory, there would be no attacks on the democratic process this year. But that is not the case. Efforts to undermine free and fair elections are now a standard component of the Republican playbook. And increasingly, right-wing judges are willing to entertain election challenges even when they lack legal justification.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued an order blocking state election officials from certifying the results of a state Supreme Court race. The order is the latest update in a months-long effort by Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin to overturn the results of November’s election.
The race between Allison Riggs (D) and Griffin was extremely close. Due to the small margin, Griffin requested a machine recount of all ballots, which showed Riggs with a lead of just 734 votes out of the 5.5 million votes cast. Griffin then requested a second recount, which involved a hand recount of 3% of all ballots cast. The recount maintained Riggs’ lead.
Griffin is now asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to throw out more than 60,000 ballots, falsely claiming that many of the ballots are invalid because the voter did not include a driver’s license number or Social Security number on their registration form.
Griffin originally filed legal challenges contesting the 60,000 ballots with the State Board of Elections, but the Board’s Democratic majority rejected Griffin’s claims. Griffin then skipped the usual appeals process and appealed the decision directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court, where Republicans have a majority. The State Board of Elections then attempted to remove the case to federal court, which rejected similar challenges from Republicans before the election.
On Monday, Richard Myers, a federal district court judge appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, sent the case back to the state level. The State Board of Elections appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is not scheduled to hear the case until mid-February.
Just a day after Myers’ ruling, the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the certification of the race, which was scheduled for Friday, on a 4-2 vote. Riggs recused herself from the order. The state Supreme Court will now hear Griffin’s challenge to throw out the 60,000 votes, with a deadline for briefs to be filed by January 24.
Needless to say, Griffin’s legal arguments are wholly without merit, and also needless to say the Republicans on North Carolina’s Supreme Court (with one honorable exception) refusing to allow the results to be certified makes it very likely that the law just won’t matter because it is inconsistent with the core principle of the North Carolina Republican Party (“Republicans are entitled to rule even if voters prefer Democrats”.)