'What it looks like to fight': NC judge demands justice for military and overseas voters

Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline
14 April
Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs and her Republican challenger, Judge Jefferson Griffin. (Courtesy photos)

The day after the state Supreme Court put conditions on military and overseas votes counting in her race, Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs said she is eager to take the fight over those votes to federal court.

“I was elected to keep my seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, and I am committed to fighting tirelessly to ensure that the will of North Carolina voters is respected,” Riggs told an audience at NC Central University’s law school on Saturday. “The eyes of the country are on the people of this state,” she said. “Because we are people of resilience, we are people of community, we’re going to show the country what it looks like to fight in tough times.”

Riggs was the final speaker at the “In Our Court” conference, sponsored by Common Cause NC, the American Constitution Society, Emancipate NC, Democracy NC, and about a half dozen other groups.

On Friday, a majority on the state Supreme Court decided that thousands of absentee ballots cast by members of the military and overseas voters should have included their photo IDs. The court said those voters would have 30 days to provide IDs after the state Board of Elections mails notices. People who don’t provide ID would have their votes in the state Supreme Court election thrown out.

The court majority decided a few hundred votes from people who live overseas and are connected to the state through their parents should be erased from the Supreme Court race total.

Riggs, the Democratic incumbent, leads Republican challenger Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes. Her lead in last November’s election has been confirmed in two recounts. In an effort to unseat her, Griffin sued the state Board of Elections to have more than 60,000 votes tossed out. Most of the voter challenges were based on Griffin’s claims of incomplete registrations.

A Supreme Court’s 4-2 majority reduced the votes in jeopardy to those cast by military and overseas absentee voters.

Riggs immediately asked federal District Judge Richard Myers for a preliminary injunction, basically to freeze action in case.

Myers on Saturday ordered the elections board to follow the state court’s instructions for notifying voters what they have to do to have their votes count, but not to certify the election until hearing more from the court.

The board is to tell Myers by Tuesday how many voters could be affected and which counties they’re in. Myers also set a schedule for written arguments.

The exact number of overseas and military voters affected is unclear. In her dissent, Justice Anita Earls wrote that at least 2,000 to 7,000 military and overseas voters could be affected. Those challenged military and overseas votes could be limited to Guilford County or could include overseas votes from a handful of other heavily Democratic counties Griffin added to his protest.

“They may be military members who have been serving on battlefronts in war zones,” Riggs said Saturday. “They are foreign service officers who are working to make this whole entire world a safer place to live,” she said.

The state’s military and overseas voting law is modeled after a federal law meant to encourage service people to vote. These voters were told they did not need to include photo ID with their ballots. Most use an electronic portal that does not allow voters to submit a photo. The majority on the Supreme Court said the state Board should have required overseas voters to supply photo ID.

While Riggs has focused her comments on military voters who may be disenfranchised, the challenged group also includes a high proportion of college-aged voters.

Griffin has included in his challenge overseas voters from Durham, Forsyth, Buncombe, and Guilford — all counties with significant student populations. The challenged overseas voters in these are five times more likely to be Democrats, said Gunther Peck, founder and co-director of the Student Voting Rights Lab at Duke and NC Central universities. The lab’s analysis found that challenged voters in this group are 4.6 times more likely to be between the ages of 18 and 25 than over the age of 65.

More than 260 Duke students living aboard and voted absentee had their votes challenged, Peck said.

Ann Webb, Common Cause NC policy director, said there are still questions the federal court can decide. A big one is whether it’s fair to single out military and overseas voters from a select group of counties.

The “gaping question” of which counties are supposed to be included needs to be resolved, Webb said, and may end up back in state court.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

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