Republicans Are Trying to Steal a North Carolina Supreme Court Seat

Judge Toby Hampson dissented at length from the court’s decision, noting that Griffin had not shown that any actually ineligible voters had cast ballots. “To accept [Griffin’s] indiscriminate efforts to call into doubt the votes of tens of thousands of otherwise eligible voters, without showing any challenged voter was disqualified under existing law from voting is to elevate speculation and surmise over evidence and reason,” he wrote.

He also rejected the majority’s insistence that a short window to cure the ballots would protect against disenfranchisement, noting that not every North Carolinian can readily comply with the “judicial hoops” imposed upon their right to vote. “What of voters in every county of this state who may have moved, have not learned of this proceeding, or are sick, immobile, elderly, transient, away on extended business travel, traveling on school breaks with their children, or are simply overwhelmed by the unrelenting attack on their voting rights?” he asked. “Their votes should count.”

On appeal, the state Supreme Court last week rejected the Court of Appeals’ shotgun approach. It declined to toss out the roughly 60,000 ballots cast by voters with incomplete applications, which amounted to the bulk of the ballots that were challenged by Griffin. All six members of the court agreed that those votes should be counted.