Republican state Supreme Court candidate sues NC as close race may head to recount
Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court, sued the State Board of Elections on Monday arguing that it has not provided election data quickly enough for him to meet deadlines to file protests.
The race for the high court is razor-thin, with Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs leading by 623 votes after outstanding absentee and provisional ballots were counted.
Election protests — allegations that election laws were violated — are due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and second-place candidates have until noon on Tuesday to request a recount in their race.
Griffin, who filed his lawsuit alongside the North Carolina Republican Party, argues that the board hasn’t provided certain information quickly enough for him to meet these deadlines.
“Defendants’ failure to provide the requested information as required by the Public Records Act is, in effect, a denial of plaintiffs’ request, and will cause plaintiffs irreparable harm,” the lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, says.
Pat Gannon, a spokesperson for the State Board of Elections, said Griffin’s campaign demanded the records over the weekend and asked that they be produced by 7 a.m. on Monday.
“The law does not require that, but they filed a lawsuit this morning anyway,” he said in a statement. “The state board provided the requested records today. In fact, the lawyers for this campaign were informed this morning that the records would be provided today, but they served the agency with the lawsuit anyway. In sum, this lawsuit is thoroughly unnecessary.”
Over the last three weeks, Griffin’s campaign submitted at least 10 public records requests to the state board, all of which the board says it responded to fully or partially. This weekend’s request was a “formal follow-up,” according to the lawsuit.
In particular, Griffin’s lawsuit says he requested a list of voters who are suspected to have voted both absentee and in-person, a list of voters who used curbside voting, a full list of felony convictions and a full list of deceased voters.
That data could form the basis for future legal challenges over the outcome of the race.
“The State Board of Elections has not earned any benefit of the doubt regarding their actions and their slow walking of critical information against increasingly tighter time frames illustrates why this lawsuit was filed,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons said in a statement. “We will keep all options available as needed to ensure their compliance with state law.”
Counties were scheduled to finish counting all outstanding ballots on Friday, but several ended up needing more time.
Wake elections board dismisses Supreme Court election protest
The Wake County Board of Elections dismissed a separate election protest dealing with the Supreme Court race on Monday.
The complaint, filed by Jay Delancy, a Sanford resident who leads a voter integrity group, argued that potentially ineligible voters on the state’s rolls could have made the difference in the race’s outcome.
His complaint requested that the board hold a new election in the race after updating the rolls.
The board’s three Democratic appointees voted to dismiss the protest, rather than hold a hearing.
“We can’t grant the remedy they’ve asked for,” Gerry Cohen, a member of the board, said. “So it’d be pointless to have a hearing on this — and the allegations aren’t even specific as to Wake County.”
The board’s two Republicans voted against dismissing the protest, saying they didn’t yet have enough information and could learn more by proceeding to a hearing.
Delancy told The News & Observer he would appeal his case to the State Board of Elections.
His complaint claims that certain voters on the state’s rolls do not have a record of their driver’s license number or Social Security number and therefore may not be citizens.
The Republican National Committee is making a similar argument in federal court in a case which seeks to purge 225,000 voters from the rolls. A judge has already partially rejected the RNC’s argument.
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