Democracy be damned

The stakes of the Supreme Court seat are too high for Republicans to worry about democracy.

Jefferson Griffin and the North Carolina Republican Party want to invalidate more than 65,000 votes cast by people who were told their votes were legitimate. Griffin lost the election for a Supreme Court seat to Allison Riggs by about 700 votes. The result was validated by recounts. His appeal has been rejected by the State Board of Elections and a Wake County Superior Court Judge, but Griffin and the GOP aren’t going to give up on their effort to disenfranchise voters and damage our democracy.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals heard the case on Friday. A three-judge panel made up of two Republicans and one Democrat will decide whether Griffin’s claims have merit. Regardless of the outcome, the case will probably end up at the Supreme Court. If Griffin wins, he will just need the court to split their decision and the Appeals Court ruling will stand. If Griffin loses, he will need four members of that court to agree with him. If so, those four will stand in contradiction to the vast majority of the state’s legal and political community.

Opposition to Griffin and the Republican Party’s attempt the steal a seat on the Supreme Court comes from almost all corners. Conservative columnist Andrew Dunn wrote, “If the Supreme Court sides with Griffin, the fallout will be immediate and brutal. This isn’t just bad optics; it’s potentially a credibility-shattering disaster for the court, the party, and conservatism in North Carolina.”

A writer at the Carolina Journal, the mouthpiece of the conservative John Locke Foundation, said, “Conservatism should lead one to respect the rules as they are, not try to change them to our own benefit. Regardless of our ideological preference or political affiliation, we should all support Riggs’ certification as the winner. Principle has no party affiliation.”

A former General Counsel for the North Carolina Republican Party co-authored a piece that read, “Griffin certainly appears to be appealing to court partisanship. If successful, he will have severely harmed both the election process and the judicial system. Everything he has done so far demonstrates that he does not belong on the court.”

Last week, a bipartisan group of more than 200 members of North Carolina’s legal community, including former Justices of the Supreme Court, signed a letter asking Griffin to withdraw his lawsuit. They wrote, “The arguments you have advanced ask our judicial system to change the rules in place for the 2024 election after it has run its course. Indeed, if you succeed, tens of thousands of voters will lose their voice after they voted. For the sake of our judicial system, we ask you to terminate your litigation now.”

Conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans, and moderates all agree that Griffin’s success would be bad for our state and government. The case threatens to undermine the credibility of our election system and our judicial system. The North Carolina Republican Party does not care. They are consumed with power.

Republicans control the legislature with near veto proof majorities despite an evenly divided state. They need the Supreme Court court to stay in Republican hands to uphold the gerrymandered districts that protect their power. If Griffin wins, they will almost certainly control the court after the next redistricting in 2031, protecting their lopsided and undemocratic majorities for another ten years. Those are the stakes of this lawsuit. Democracy be damned.