'Throwing out votes': Trump DOJ sues NC elections board — recalling failed election lawsuit

For six months, Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin — the Republican candidate in 2024's North Carolina Supreme Court race — refused to accept Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs' narrow victory. Griffin tried to get thousands of votes for Riggs thrown out, but Riggs stood her ground — and on May 7, Griffin finally conceded defeat.

Now, the Trump Administration is suing the North Carolina Board of Elections, which it claims is violating federal law by not maintaining an accurate voter registration file.

News From the States reporter Lynn Bonner, in an article published on May 28, explains, "In a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday, (May 27), the U.S. Justice Department said the lack of driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers, or unique identifying numbers connected to some voter registration records violates the Help America Vote Act. The Justice Department wants the (North Carolina) Elections Board to ask all voters who do not have the proper numbers in the statewide database for the information."

READ MORE: 'Zombie apocalypse': Morning Joe panel rips 'affirmative action for conservatives'

The North Carolina Elections Board, Bonner reports, is being asked "to attach unique numbers to voters who do not have those other identifiers."

"The allegations in the DOJ lawsuit mirror an issue Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin raised as he tried to overturn Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs' election victory by throwing out votes," according to Bonner. "The DOJ claims also mirror a state Republican Party and Republican National Committee federal lawsuit contending that people who do not have the government digits connected to their electronic file are not legally registered to vote. It’s unclear how many registrations don’t have the numbers, but the GOP sought to purge about 225,000 voters over the issue."

Bonner add, "The (North Carolina) Elections Board did not do enough to remedy the problem of missing identification numbers when conservative activist Carol Snow raised it in a complaint in 2023, the DOJ lawsuit says."

Griffin's critics — many of them Democrats, although some were right-wing Never Trump conservatives — called out his efforts to overturn Riggs' victory as an attempt at voter suppression in what has evolved into a major swing state.

READ MORE: 'Threat to glory of the dictator': Fascism expert explains why Trump wants to 'smash' US 'crown jewel'

North Carolina, in the past, was a deep red state. But it acted like a real swing state in 2024, when Democrat Josh Stein was elected governor and Riggs narrowly defeated Griffin. Now-President Donald Trump, however, defeated Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 3 percent in North Carolina last year.

READ MORE: 'Soft underbelly': Investigative reporterd detail 'biggest area of corruption for the Trump family'

Read the full News From the States article at this link.