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(Photo: Clayton Henkel)
The state Board of Elections on Friday dismissed the county-level protests four Republican candidates filed contesting November’s election results.
Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin, state Rep. Frank Sossamon, and Senate candidates Stacie McGinn of Mecklenburg County and Ashlee Adams of Wake, filed multi-faceted protests of election results in their attempt to win close races.
Griffin is trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs. An initial count of all ballots and a machine recount have him 734 behind. Democrat Bryan Cohn leads Sossamon in a House district that covers Vance and Granville counties. Cohn’s victory would mean Democrats have broken the GOP supermajority in the House.
County boards of election had to decide whether their totals included votes from people who died before Election Day, people who were not registered, or people serving felony sentences.
In addition to those voters, McGinn protested 202 absentee ballots submitted by people she claimed do not live in Mecklenburg County.
A private investigator scoured internet sources, including whitepages.com and LinkedIn, and went to some voters addresses to try to figure out where they lived. The Mecklenburg County elections board dismissed those protests.
James Whalen, a lawyer representing the Democratic candidates and the state Democratic Party, told the Board that McGinn did not give timely notice to the voters whose residency she challenged.
The Republican candidates submitted bulky lists of suspected ineligible voters. Counties had already removed many of the ballots the candidates questioned, Board attorney Adam Steele said.
In a 3-2 vote, with Democrats in the majority, the Board determined that ballots under protest would not determine election outcomes.
“Counsel for all the protesters have all conceded that the matters before us today are not outcome determinative,” said Board Chairman Alan Hirsch.
Board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, a Republican, said the Board was rushing a decision. While the results of the county investigations on their own wouldn’t determine the winner of the Supreme Court race, he said, they ultimately could, depending on the outcome of litigation over more than 60,000 ballots still in question.
While the totals questioned on the county level are relatively small, Griffin is suing to have another 60,000 ballots thrown out.
Griffin’s lawsuit over counting those ballots is now in federal court.
Griffin maintains that more than 60,000 voters are not legally registered because they did not include driver’s license numbers or partial Social Security numbers on their registration forms.
Earlier this year, a federal judge partially dismissed a Republican National Committee and NC GOP lawsuit based on this argument. Republicans were seeking to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls, or have the court force them to vote provisional ballots.
Griffin and the Republican legislative candidates also wanted the Board to throw out votes by overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but whose parents last lived in the state. A state law passed more than a decade ago allows these voters to cast absentee ballots. State courts rejected a Republican Party lawsuit that sought to prevent the state from accepting these ballots.
Griffin also wants absentee votes of military and citizens living overseas thrown out because they did not submit photo ID with their ballots.
The state Board on Dec. 11 rejected those protests.
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This week, Griffin asked the state Supreme Court to throw out those ballots, but before the court could consider his request, the state Board moved the case to federal court.
On Friday, a federal judge denied Griffin’s request for a temporary restraining order.
Meanwhile, voting rights groups are making public their opposition to Griffin’s attempts to throw out votes.
Their efforts include a billboard in Raleigh drawing attention to Griffin’s efforts that features the judge’s image and the words “Jefferson Griffin’s campaign to toss our votes is an injustice.”
“The votes have been counted, and counted again. The results are confirmed. The people have spoken. Now, Jefferson Griffin should honor the will of the voters rather than focus on disenfranchising large numbers of them,” Gino Nuzzolillo, campaigns manager with Common Cause North Carolina, said in a press release.
“Our coalition’s public information campaign will continue until Griffin ends his shameful attempt to undermine the will of voters. It’s time to respect the election outcome and let North Carolina move forward.”