North Carolina: Seeking to avoid repeat of Supreme Court election lawsuit, lawmakers eye changes for overseas voters | By Will Doran/WRAL

Democrats in the state legislature are planning to file a bill aimed directly at one of the legal tactics employed by Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin in his attempt to reverse the results of the 2024 election for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat. Griffin wants to throw out more than 60,000 voters’ ballots, including thousands of ballots cast by overseas voters. The state didn’t require overseas voters to show photo identification in 2024, even though most other voters did have to show ID. Griffin contends that’s wrong, and that their ballots shouldn’t count. No legislation would be able to shut down Griffin’s lawsuit as it plays out in the courts, but Democrats believe their proposal will at least stop future lawsuits from targeting overseas voters like deployed members of the military, by making it clear that they don’t have to show ID. Read Article

North Carolina: America’s last undecided election threatens our core democratic principles | Edward B. Foley/Salon

One of the most important premises of America’s election system in the 21st century is that the federal judiciary demands that the states must treat all cast ballots equally. Federal courts require states to uphold the constitutional principle of equal protection if the government of a state has determined that certain offices are to be decided by popular vote. Furthermore, states must adhere to the right to due process. After an election has been completed, federal law prohibits states from throwing out ballots that were cast in accordance with the prevailing understanding of established election practices in that state at the time of the election. These two bedrock principles of free and fair elections currently risk being weakened by a highly unusual election dispute playing out in North Carolina — and I am astounded that there’s any chance the courts would throw out the votes of North Carolinians who properly cast their ballots in last November’s election. Read Article

North Carolina: Ghost in the machine: ‘Signature verification’ program for voters has reliability issues, report says | Sarah Michels/Carolina Public Press

It was an experiment that cost over $450,000, mostly to pay for verification equipment for 10 counties. County boards incurred an additional $8,000. The time commitment varied from county to county. In Durham County, the most populous participant, the program took 80 staff hours. In smaller areas like Bertie and Cherokee counties, the job only took an hour or two. And the results are mixed. In Rowan County, for instance, the signature verification software reviewed 308 absentee ballots during the primary election. It spit out 24 as potential mismatched signatures. Read Article

North Carolina Supreme Court won’t fast-track lawsuit challenging 60K ballots in race for one of its own seats | Will Doran/WRAL

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that it won’t fast-track the lawsuit by the Republican candidate for a Supreme Court seat who’s trying to throw out the ballots of more than 60,000 voters in an attempt to reverse the 2024 election results. The decision could play a major role in who ultimately wins the seat. Republican Jefferson Griffin received 734 fewer votes than Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, recounts show. But the race hasn’t been certified as Griffin challenges the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters whom he says shouldn’t have been allowed to vote in the first place. Read Article

North Carolina: Like Trump, Jefferson Griffin May Be One Vote Away From Overturning a State’s Election Result | Billy Corriher/Democracy Docket

North Carolina’s highest court recently rejected Judge Jefferson Griffin’s request to bypass the lower courts and declare him the winner of last year’s state Supreme Court election, even though Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs received 734 more votes. But three of the seven justices signed on to a misleading concurring opinion implying — with zero evidence — that election fraud impacted the outcome. Like President Donald Trump in 2020, Griffin is seeking to overturn the results of an election that he lost. Trump’s election denialism was rejected by courts across the country — but in Wisconsin, Trump lost his baseless appeal to the state Supreme Court by just one vote. Judge Brian Hagedorn, a Republican appointee, voted with the liberals and authored a narrow 4-3 ruling to reject the conspiracy theories that formed the basis of Trump’s appeal. Read Article

North Carolina: Federal Ruling Says State Courts Should Decide Election Case | Eduardo Medina/The New York Times

A federal appeals court said on Tuesday that the legal battle in North Carolina over a State Supreme Court seat should be decided in state court. The opinion from a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dealt a major blow to the Democratic incumbent, Allison Riggs, who narrowly won the seat in November but whose Republican challenger is seeking to flip the result. Justice Riggs had sought to have the issue resolved in federal court. Tuesday’s ruling means that her colleagues on the State Supreme Court, which has a 5-to-2 Republican majority, may end up settling the dispute. Read Article

North Carolina: They Followed Election Rules When They Cast Their Ballots. Now Their Votes Could Be Tossed Anyway. | Doug Bock Clark/ProPublica

Republican state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin has spent more than two months trying to overturn his narrow defeat for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat by arguing that around 60,000 ballots should be tossed out. But many residents have only recently learned that their votes are in danger of not being counted and say they have done nothing wrong. Elizabeth MacDonald, who registered as an unaffiliated voter and lives in an area of Western North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene, made sure to cast a ballot, even though she was still consumed by both the devastation of the storm and the demands of caring for her infant. “The prospect of losing my vote for arbitrary and political reasons is especially painful given the personal and communal trauma we’ve endured over the past several months,” MacDonald wrote in a letter to Griffin. Read Article

GOP Already Controls the North Carolina Supreme Court – Why Are They Obsessed With Overturning That Race? | Courtney Cohn/Democracy Docket

While a single seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, which already has an overwhelming Republican majority, may seem insignificant, this race has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for future election challenges. If Republicans use it to undermine the electoral system, consequences could be felt by voters across the country. “I spent 15 years as a civil rights attorney with a focus on voting rights. I know what disenfranchisement looks like,” said Justice Allison Riggs, the Democratic candidate in this race, in a Democracy Docket interview. “The right to vote and to have your voice heard is a fundamental, precious right, and our democracy only works if those in charge respect the will of the voters.” Read Article

Opinion: Republicans in North Carolina Are Treading a Terrifying Path | Frank Bruni/The New York Times

Nothing should be shocking after Jan. 6, 2021, when an American president’s scheming to overturn the legitimate results of a fair election culminated in the bloody breaching of the Capitol. Still, I’m aghast at the audacity of what Republicans here in North Carolina are up to. They are following in their leader’s footsteps and trying to steal an election. And if such an effort no longer seems as strange and sinister as it did before Donald Trump stormed onto the political scene and took a torch to whatever scruples still existed, that’s all the more reason to examine it closely. We need to be clear about where things stand. With an election denier about to move back into the White House and his disciples emboldened, our democracy is in danger. That’s the moral of the North Carolina story. It’s much, much bigger than this state. Read Article

North Carolina Supreme Court halts certification of apparent Riggs win | Kyle Ingram/Raleigh News & Observer

The North Carolina Supreme Court issued an order on Tuesday blocking the state from certifying a winner in the race for a seat on the high court. Granting the request of Republican Jefferson Griffin, who trails his opponent, Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, by 734 votes, the court’s Republican majority issued a temporary stay that will prevent the State Board of Elections from certifying Riggs as the winner. Anita Earls, the only other Democrat on the court alongside Riggs, dissented, writing that “the public interest requires that the court not interfere with the ordinary course of democratic processes as set by statute and the state constitution.” Riggs recused herself from the case. Read Article

North Carolina: Stein, Cooper revamp lawsuit against GOP bill on elections | Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi/Raleigh News & Observer

Incoming Gov. Josh Stein and Gov. Roy Cooper sought to expand a lawsuit on Monday to challenge a new wide-ranging law passed by the GOP-led legislature that removes power from incoming Democratic officeholders. Cooper and Stein had already filed a separate lawsuit earlier over the wide-ranging bill known as Senate Bill 382, but that case focused on a change making the State Highway Patrol a standalone department, removing it from the N.C. Department of Public Safety. On Monday, Cooper and Stein added to an ongoing lawsuit filed in Wake County Superior Court to target the portion of SB 382 that transfers the governor’s power to appoint members of the State Board of Elections to the state auditor, as well as the part of the bill that shifts the power to appoint the chair of each county board of elections from the governor to the auditor. Read Article

North Carolina: Republican Appeals Court Judge Griffin asks State Supreme Court to intervene in his challenge of 60,000 ballots | Kyle Ingram/Raleigh News & Observer

Republican Jefferson Griffin is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to intervene in his effort to challenge over 60,000 ballots cast in his race for the high court. The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s ballot protests, but has not taken a final step of certifying the election. Griffin now asks the court, which has a 5 to 2 Republican majority, to prohibit the board from certifying the election and to throw out the challenged ballots. Read Article

North Carolina GOP Grabs Control of  Election Boards, Rushing to Negate November Losses | Alex Burness/Bolts

Around 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon, the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected a bid by Republican Jefferson Griffin to toss about 60,000 votes cast in a state supreme court race he narrowly lost. Griffin had filed six different protests and on all but one the board voted on party lines: Its three Democratic members sided against him, outvoting the two Republican members. “The importance of people being able to vote and not be disenfranchised is extraordinarily important,” Alan Hirsch, the Democratic chair of the state elections board, said Wednesday as the board shot down Griffin’s bid. “It’s a fundamental constitutional right. It’s what makes our democracy run.” Read Article

North Carolina G.O.P. Wants to Disqualify 60,000 Ballots in Race Was Decided by 734 Votes | Michael Wines/The New York Times

From voter ID laws to district map-drawing to judges redeciding cases, North Carolina has long been a laboratory of sorts in ways to amass political power. In recent years, Republicans in particular have changed both state laws and election rules to hamstring Democrats’ influence. Now, one of the closest statewide elections in North Carolina history is offering a vivid example of the maneuvering in play to gain an upper hand. A lengthy recount of more than 5.5 million ballots from the November election that ended last week showed that an incumbent Democrat on North Carolina’s state Supreme Court, Allison Riggs, held a 734-vote edge over Jefferson G. Griffin, a Republican judge on the state Court of Appeals. REead Article

North Carolina Supreme Court GOP Candidate Asks for Hand Recount as Party Pushes Controversial Bill | Courtney Cohn/Democracy Docket

North Carolina Supreme Court GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin requested a hand recount after he challenged thousands of ballots across the state in the tight race against his Democratic opponent Allison Riggs, who declared victory. “Recounts are a normal part of the process in a close race. What isn’t normal is the way my opponent is attempting to engineer a new outcome by challenging more than 60,000 votes across our state,” Riggs said in a post on X Monday. A couple of weeks ago, Griffin asked for a machine recount, which showed that Riggs won the election. In an email statement on Tuesday, Riggs said that the “results of the recount were identical to the original vote count” and that she won the race. Read Article

North Carolina Republicans pass sweeping changes to consolidate power | Patrick Marley/The Washington Post

Republicans in North Carolina rushed a bill through the legislature this week to boost their power before they lose their supermajority, approving a measure to give their party more control over elections, eliminate the jobs of judges who have ruled against them and limit the authority of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general. Republicans hold three-fifths majorities in the legislature and have used that power to override vetoes by Gov. Roy Cooper (D). In January, they’ll lose the ability to easily roll back vetoes by incoming Gov. Josh Stein (D) because they’ll no longer hold such a large majority in the North Carolina House. The GOP response has been to flex their power now, while they still have it. They loaded up a $227 million Hurricane Helene relief package with an array of provisions that weaken the hand of Stein and other Democrats in the battleground state. Hours after unveiling the proposals, the state House passed the bill Tuesday night, and the state Senate approved it Wednesday. Read Article

North Carolina appeals court rejects RNC request to set aside ballots from overseas voters who never lived in state | Devan Cole/CNN

The North Carolina Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously rejected a Republican bid to have election officials segregate overseas ballots cast by people who have never resided in the state for additional checks of the voters’ eligibility. The court’s decision is the latest blow to Republican efforts to attack overseas ballots in critical battleground states. Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a challenge to the vetting procedures for overseas ballots in that state. And last week, a state judge in Michigan sided against the GOP in a case targeting ballots cast by people who had never lived there but were eligible to vote in the state because of familial ties to it. Read Article

As North Carolina begins voting, hurricane devastation complicates casting ballots | Gabe Gutierrez and Bianca Seward/NBC

The violent water smashed into the fellowship hall, pushing a propane tank through a wall, encasing the structure in mud and devastating the church in this mountain community just over a month before the hotly contested presidential race draws to a close. “This is a flood like we’ve never had,” said Larry Jones, a deacon at Minneapolis Baptist Church, one of the polling places in rural Avery County ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene last month. The site is one of several in the county unable to open in time for the election. Three days after the storm, Jones and his wife managed to hike up to his elderly mother-in-law’s house by wading through mud up to their knees. The roads and bridges were blocked. He made it to his church a few days later and has been organizing volunteer efforts ever since. Read Article

North Carolina: How Helene Has Upended Election Plans | Eduardo Medina and Mark Barrett/The New York Times

For decades, the North Fork Voting House has served as the official polling place for nearly 600 residents in the small mountain community of Creston, N.C. The tiny cinder block building was recently updated with a freshly painted white door, handmade curtains for the voting booths and a new metal roof. But the voting house was one of several structures destroyed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene late last month, uprooted by the epic flooding and mudslides that swept through western North Carolina. By the time the floodwaters subsided, the new metal roof was wrapped around a tree in a precinct worker’s yard. “You just think, ‘Really, something else?’” said Devon Houck, the director of the Ashe County Board of Elections. “There is already a lot of scrutiny, a lot of eyes watching North Carolina because of its swing state status, and now this.” Read Article

North Carolina: Hurricane Helene upends election planning in some parts of state | Steve Harrison/NPR

North Carolina election officials said Tuesday that early voting would start as planned on Oct. 17, including in counties that were devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene. But they don’t know how many early voting sites and Election Day polling places might be unusable in the swing state because of the storm. “There may be polling places impacted by mudslides, there may be polling places inaccessible because of damaged roads, and there may be polling places with trees that have fallen on them,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. North Carolina is still trying to assess the damage from Helene, which caused massive flooding in the mountainous western part of the state. Read Article

North Carolina: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has Sabotaged Early Voting in a Critical Swing State | Mark Joseph Stern/Slate

The North Carolina Supreme Court tossed a grenade into the state’s election on Monday, violating both state and federal law to grant Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cynical, last-minute removal from the ballot. Its 4–3 decision will compel election administrators to destroy nearly 3 million already-printed ballots that featured Kennedy’s name and redesign 2,348 different ballot styles across the state to accommodate the eleventh-hour change. This complex process will significantly delay the distribution of new ballots—which will, in turn, unlawfully abridge early voting for everyone while jeopardizing the voting rights of service members overseas in clear contradiction of federal statute. It’s a nightmare for local election officials, who must now disregard the laws they’re sworn to uphold. And it’s an affront to North Carolinians at large, whose right to a fair, orderly election has been sabotaged by a lawless court and the candidate it so obviously favors. Read Article

North Carolina Republicans Sue Over State Guidance On Absentee Ballots | Crystal Hill/Democracy Docket

The Republican National Committee (RNC), the North Carolina Republican Party and a voter are suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) over its guidance to county election boards that an absentee ballot may be counted even if it isn’t submitted in a sealed container-return envelope. It’s the latest RNC lawsuit targeting state voting procedures ahead of the 2024 race and third filed in the state over the past two weeks. The plaintiffs argue the state board’s guidance directly conflicts with state election law on counting absentee ballots. Specifically, state law stipulates that an absentee ballot must, among other things, be received by the appropriate county board of elections in a sealed container-return envelope to be counted by that board.” Read Article

A North Carolina county is losing its 2 top election officials weeks before balloting begins | Associated Press

A North Carolina county will soon lose its top two election administrators mere weeks before the first general election ballots go out to voters. The elections board in Pasquotank County, along the Virginia border about 170 miles (274 kilometers) northeast of Raleigh, this week accepted the resignation of Deputy Director Troy White, The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City reported. White’s departure is effective Aug. 16, the same day that the resignation of Director Emma Tate takes effect. Staffing has long been a challenge for election offices nationally, but 2020 was a tipping point with the pandemic-related challenges before the presidential vote and the hostility afterward driven by false claims of a rigged election. Other politically important states have also seen considerable turnover. For instance, 11 of Nevada’s 17 counties have had turnover in top county election positions since the 2020 election. Read Article

North Carolina: Rapid loss of elections directors tied to low pay, investigation finds | Mehr Sher/Carolina Public Press

The rapid loss of North Carolina county elections directors has raised concerns about the inability of some counties to hire and retain qualified and experienced directors, which could interfere with their conduct of smooth and orderly elections. Carolina Public Press obtained data from North Carolina counties showing how much they paid elections directors and how long the current director has been on the job. Counties with highest pay tended to keep directors longer while those with lowest pay tended to have more recent turnover. The state statute governing elections director pay hasn’t been changed in 25 years. While some counties have increased pay, others are starved for resources. Read Article

North Carolina justices say those who helped file voting fraud allegations are protected from suit  | Gary D. Robertson/Associated Press

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a defamation lawsuit against attorneys who assisted voters with submitting some 2016 ballot complaints, saying the fraud allegations they helped make were broadly protected within the protest process. The 5-0 ruling overturns the decision of a lower appeals court that determined only those actively participating in the process were shielded from liability. It’s also a court victory for a legal defense fund for then-Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign, which also was sued. Four registered voters had sued in 2017 for libel and for damages, saying they were wrongly accused of voter fraud by pro-McCrory forces just after the close election that was ultimately won by Democrat Roy Cooper. Read Article

North Carolina elections board, in bipartisan vote, shoots down ‘audit force’ allegations of election violations | Will Doran/WRAL

The North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously dismissed claims made by Carol Snow, an election integrity activist affiliated with the NC Audit Force group, alleging violations of federal election law and voter fraud going unchecked in the state. Snow’s complaint, which cited discrepancies in voter lists and instances of duplicate voting, was refuted by state elections board staff who attributed the errors to mistakes or Snow’s lack of access to certain data. Despite the growing popularity of grassroots election integrity efforts among conservatives, particularly fueled by former President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud, the bipartisan agreement on the board deemed Snow’s claims baseless. Read Article

North Carolina lawsuits challenging same-day registration change can proceed, judge says | Gary D. Robertson/Associated Press

Two lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s tightened same-day voter registration regulations can proceed, despite recent adjustments by state election officials to address a judge’s constitutional concerns. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder declined to dismiss the suits, rejecting motions from defendants including Republican legislative leaders and the State Board of Elections. The lawsuits target a 2023 law altering the criteria for disqualifying votes cast by same-day registrants during the early voting period. The changes, affecting over 100,000 new registrants during recent presidential elections, include a provision requiring only one piece of undeliverable mail for removal from voter rolls instead of two, which critics argue heightens the risk of disenfranchisement due to paperwork errors or mail issues. Read Article

North Carolina: County elections directors leave amid low pay, voter hostility | Mehr Sher/Carolina Public Press

Over the past five years, North Carolina counties have changed elections directors 58 times, according to the North Carolina State Board Elections, with seven already this year. The state board’s executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, raised concerns about departures of so many county elections directors during a March 26 virtual state canvass meeting for the 2024 primary election. Since the beginning of 2024 four directors have retired and three resigned. Four of these positions have been filled in Chowan, Rowan and Currituck counties, while three remain vacant in Burke, Greene and Vance counties, according to data Carolina Public Press requested from the state board. The departures of county board of elections directors create a loss of institutional knowledge and pose challenges for election administration on the county level in a presidential election year, Brinson Bell said. Read Article

North Carolina trial judges block election board changes made by Republican legislature | Gary D. Robertson/Associated Press

North Carolina trial judges have issued a preliminary injunction blocking portions of a new law that aimed to transfer Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s authority to pick election board members to the Republican-dominated General Assembly. Cooper’s lawyers argued that the alterations to the State Board of Elections and county boards would harm his constitutional directive to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The new law, enacted in October, would increase the board to eight members appointed by the General Assembly, potentially creating a 4-4 split among Democrats and Republicans. Read Article

North Carolina Republicans enact voting changes that weaken governor’s ability to oversee elections | Gary D. Robertson/Associated Press

North Carolina Republicans have overridden Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes, enacting new voting restrictions and reducing the governor’s oversight on elections. The laws eliminate the governor’s authority to appoint the State Board of Elections, giving that power to legislative leaders, and end a three-day grace period for receiving absentee ballots, requiring them to arrive by the end of in-person voting on Election Day to be counted. These changes, aimed at the 2024 elections, face legal challenges from Democrats who argue that they favor Republicans and hinder voter access. Other provisions in the new laws include prohibiting private funding for elections administration and altering appointments to various boards and commissions, shifting authority to the General Assembly. Read Article