JUSTICE ALLISON RIGGS ASKS FEDERAL JUDGE TO END JEFFERSON GRIFFIN’S BID TO THROW OUT NORTH CAROLINIANS’ VOTES
Raleigh, NC– On the first day of 2025, Justice Allison Riggs, the North Carolina State Board of Elections, and nonpartisan voting rights groups filed briefs in Jefferson Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections, asking a federal judge to end losing candidate Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to throw out the votes of his fellow North Carolinians.
Justice Riggs won the November 2024 election for North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice (Seat Six). Her victory was confirmed by two recounts, including a statewide machine recount.
Rather than accepting the results of the election, Judge Griffin filed election protests challenging the validity of more than 60,000 North Carolinians’ ballots. These challenges were all dismissed by the North Carolina State Board of Elections in December. Judge Griffin then appealed this decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court instead of appealing to Wake County Superior Court as state law requires. This action was removed to federal court due to the civil rights implications of the case, and is now in federal court.
“It is a new year, and it is time for the 2024 election to end. Judge Griffin must accept that he has lost this election. He must end his quest to disenfranchise and silence more than 60,000 of his fellow North Carolinians,” said Embry Owen, Riggs’ campaign manager.
In Riggs’ brief filed yesterday, her counsel explained the legal reasons why Griffin’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would stop the certification of Riggs’ victory, must fail:
“Judge Griffin cannot show that he is likely to succeed in throwing out tens of thousands of votes cast by his fellow North Carolinians in compliance with official guidance. And the public interest does not favor runner-up candidates who seek to undo the will of the voters.”
In addition to Riggs, several voting rights groups, including the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans and VoteVets Action Fund, have intervened in the case on behalf of challenged voters. The League of Women Voters of North Carolina has also filed an amicus brief on behalf of their members who have been targeted by Judge Griffin’s protests.
A bipartisan group of former congressmen, including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, three Republican congressmen, and two Democrat congressmen, have also filed an amicus brief. These former representatives were in office and instrumental in passing the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, and are pushing back on Griffin’s attempted disenfranchisement of North Carolina voters.
In their brief, they highlight: “As former members of Congress who supported HAVA and helped secure its passage, Amici have a strong interest in the proper implementation and interpretation of the Act. Amici believe that this action presents a substantial federal question and therefore that this court has subject matter jurisdiction over the case.”
Justice Allison Riggs has served on the North Carolina Supreme Court since 2023. Prior to her judicial service she was a civil rights and voting rights attorney who worked with communities across the South to ensure free and fair elections and safe and healthy environments.