North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said she’s “absolutely” concerned that the state Supreme Court could overturn the results of a race for a seat on the court that has now gone to two recounts.
The results of the initial count and the first recount both showed incumbent Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs leading Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, by 734 votes. But Griffin requested a second recount partially done by hand that was completed Tuesday.
Clayton at a press conference Tuesday pointed to efforts from the GOP-led state Legislature attempting to strip power from Democratic officials as evidence that the state Supreme Court, with a current 5-2 conservative majority, could throw out the results.
In addition to the recounts, Griffin has challenged the validity of 60,000 ballots cast in the race.
“Do I have fear? Absolutely,” Clayton said. “Are we going to do everything in our power to protect these voters and to protect the democracy that we currently still have when we have two branches of government right now that are using their power unconstitutionally, in my opinion? Yes.”
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed the proposed legislation that easily passed the Republican-dominated Legislature that would allocate $227 million from the state’s savings fund to a relief fund to respond to the effects of Hurricane Helene but would also make a wide range of changes to power in the state.
Notably, it would take certain powers away from the governor, attorney general and state superintendent, offices that Democrats won and will control in January, and give them to the state auditor, who will be a Republican, and the Legislature.
Time is of the essence because Democrats were able to pick up a seat in the state House, breaking a veto-proof supermajority that the GOP has enjoyed for the new term in January. Republicans are seeking to override Cooper’s veto before the next term starts and incoming Gov.-elect Josh Stein (D) takes office.
The state Senate passed the override along party lines, while the state House has yet to vote on it. Three Republicans in the House voted against the bill originally, putting the chances of the override passing up in the air.
“Are you seriously thinking that they would not be this manipulative and this malicious with the people and the power that they hold in this state?” Clayton said.
She said the party has filed a lawsuit in federal court to preserve the ballots of the 60,000 voters. She said the ballots are being challenged on grounds of incomplete voter registration forms, with missing information like a Social Security number or driver’s license number.
But she said these voters may have never been notified of the missing information because Republicans were not previously challenging the validity of these voters’ registrations.
“At this moment in time, we are trying to make sure that people are raising their voices, that we are filing lawsuits where we can to hold back, and we are also trusting the process of our board of elections officials to do their job and to count every single vote and to recount every single vote,” Clayton said.
The state elections board announced after the second recount ended that it would not order a full hand recount of the ballots because Riggs gained votes in the most recent count.
The recount yielded Riggs 70 additional votes and Griffin 56 additional votes, while state law requires Griffin to have gained at least 35 additional votes in the partial hand recount in 3 percent of the Election Day precincts and early voting sites in each county, according to the board.
