We have finally come to a conclusion in the long-running appeal of the race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his “On My Mind” commentary, says there should be a better way to deliver justice in such cases.
I can’t quite bring myself to say that the North Carolina Supreme Court race between Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin is over. I’ve seen the “Friday the 13th” movies too many times. They always think Jason is dead until he rises up from the lake in that stupid hockey mask.
But I will admit that the race seems to be over. Federal Judge Richard Myers ruled in Riggs’ favor, saying Griffin’s efforts to throw out ballots violated voters’ due process and equal protection rights. Griffin then conceded the election. The North Carolina Elections Board said it will certify the election once the judge’s seven-day stay expires today.
For now, unless and until Jason appears from behind a couch somewhere, let’s just say this: There ought to be a way to punish somebody like Jefferson Griffin for causing such a colossal waste of time.
He lost the election by 734 votes. That’s close enough to demand a recount and Griffin was well within his rights to do so. But after two recounts, he had still lost. And that’s where his efforts moved from basic accounting to attempted theft.
Griffin tried to have about 65,000 ballots from the race thrown out. He claimed that some didn’t have all the proper voter registration information on file; that some overseas and military voters hadn’t provided photo ID; and that some folks should not have been allowed to vote at all, such as children of military parents from North Carolina who turned 18 while their families were stationed abroad.
The problem is, the state elections board had already provided exceptions for all those groups. But Griffin pressed ahead through six full months of appeals, finding just enough Republican judges along the way to give his desperate efforts a little hope until Judge Myers — a Trump appointee, by the way — finally shut the door.
This wasn’t the same as the Bush v. Gore presidential race in 2000, where the question was whether voting machines had accurately counted the ballots. This was one candidate trying to disenfranchise more than 60,000 voters because he didn’t like the way the election turned out.
I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that the same folks who hollered “STOP THE STEAL” five years ago are the ones actively trying to pull off a heist today. They’re led by a man who still refuses to say he lost the 2020 election. You might remember his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state, asking him to “find 11,780 votes.” If you’re brazen enough to try that, then 734 votes should be no problem. Griffin simply followed the template his boss created. And I’m sure other candidates will do the same thing.
It’s too bad there aren’t better penalties for wasting the courts’ time and resources while, you know, trying to rig an election in your favor. Court costs don’t quite cover it. Maybe we could go back to a more traditional notion of shame.
It would be nice if we made Jefferson Griffin walk around the state wearing a T-shirt that says I TRIED TO STEAL AN ELECTION AND SUBVERT DEMOCRACY AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.
How long for that walk of shame? Well, six months seems appropriate.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
