'We’re done with the nonsense': Furious NC residents fed up with GOP push to overturn election

15 May

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and Judge Jefferson Griffin (courtesy photos)

On Wednesday, May 7, 2025, Republican Jefferson Griffin finally conceded defeat to incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs in the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court race.

Judge Griffin, who lost to Riggs by 734 votes, spent six months trying to overturn the election results and get thousands of votes for Riggs thrown out. Like Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race or far-right MAGA Republican Kari Lake in Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial election, Griffin's name came to symbolize GOP election denialism.

But Riggs fought back aggressively and ultimately prevailed, often emphasizing that the election was about much more than a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court — it was about democracy itself, and Republicans needing to accept election results no matter how much they dislike them.

In an article published on May 15, Salon's Tatyana Tandanpolie stresses that many North Carolina residents who legitimately voted for Riggs deeply resent the months Griffin spent trying to throw their votes out.

Asheville, North Carolina-based voter Copland Rudolph told Salon, "I wish it felt like more of a relief than it does, honestly, because I know it's a temporary relief. I am still angry (about) the amount of energy, time, money that Jefferson Griffin siphoned from this state, and particularly this community, with his own self-interest centered. I hope he recognizes the other side: that he has fired up women voters in this state — that we're done. We're done with the nonsense."

Griffin's concession followed a May 5 ruling from U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, a Trump appointee.

Myers sided with Riggs, writing, "You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done."

Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), applauded Myers' ruling as a victory for U.S. democracy.

Hasen told Salon, "The state courts set a dangerous precedent in allowing a candidate to ask for retroactive changing of rules in the hopes of changing the outcome of an election…. We cannot count on every court to do the right thing these days, especially in an atmosphere where conspiracy theories about voting run rampant on the right. But hopefully, enough courts will preserve democracy and the rule of law when it matters."

Read Tatyana Tandanpolie's full Salon article at this link.

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