In late October, like so many other college students, I turned out to check early voting off of my to-do list. I waited in line at a church near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s campus, following a maze of arrows that led me to my polling station.
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I showed my driver’s license to the poll workers — complying with Republicans’ voter ID requirements — confirmed my registration details, and stepped into a booth to cast my ballot. Thinking that I had done my part, I moved on with my semester.
But just a few weeks ago, a friend sent me a screenshot of a long list of names that included my own. I was shocked to learn that I am one of more than 65,000 people in North Carolina whose vote Republican are attempting to undermine.
Two recounts have already affirmed incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ lead of 734 votes in the election to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Yet her opponent, Republican Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals, is still refusing to accept those results.
Griffin is trying to toss out over 65,000 votes based on inaccurate claims about these voters’ registration statuses. And he’s doing it in part by targeting college-aged voters like me. Young voters made up just around 10% of total voters who cast ballots in the state in 2024, yet, according to WUNC, we account for more than 24% of the votes that Griffin wants thrown away. That’s no surprise, given that he and other Republicans know too well that voters our age historically tend to lean Democratic.
It has been over three months since North Carolinians made their choice at the ballot box clear. This is now the last statewide election in the United States still waiting to be certified.
Griffin hasn’t been deterred by either recount, or by both Republicans and Democrats on the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejecting his claims — even though he still hasn’t been able to point to one example of an ineligible voter casting a ballot in 2024. Instead of conceding, he is shamefully wasting state resources on a court battle. In other words, Griffin is trying to change the rules of the game simply because he knows that all signs point to his defeat.
The stakes of this ongoing legal battle could not be higher. Allowing a candidate to target eligible voters and invalidate tens of thousands of ballots to tip the scales in his favor sets a dangerous precedent for modern disenfranchisement. If Griffin and North Carolina Republicans are successful in throwing out legal votes and overturning the results of this fair and free election, the floodgates could burst wide open, allowing other candidates to try and use this same playbook.
This effort to overturn the election results is anti-democratic — and failing to stop it would be a foreboding signal for the future of our nation’s already fragile democracy.
Amid the rollback of federal protections for rights like abortion access, Republicans are attempting to use state courts to sidestep the will of the American people. We’ve seen firsthand how Republicans with state judicial control have pushed through unpopular policies across the country, like in Arizona, where an anti-choice majority on the state Supreme Court upheld a 160-year-old law that outlawed all abortions with horrifyingly narrow exceptions. (In response, state lawmakers repealed the ban and voters passed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion access up to 24 weeks). Or in Alabama, where the state Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos were children forced IVF providers to temporarily stop offering services across the state.
State Supreme Courts are too often a final line of defense for keeping our fundamental rights intact. Up against a second Donald Trump administration and a Republican trifecta at the federal level, protecting Democratic state justices — and the integrity of our elections — is vital to preserving our rights, our livelihoods, and our futures.
It’s disorienting to be a politically engaged college student, working at EMILYs List, which has helped elect Democratic pro-choice women for 40 years, and supporting women like Riggs, while leaders in my home state try to invalidate my vote for her reelection.
If you call North Carolina home, find out if you are one of the more than 65,000 people whose vote is being targeted by Griffin, and take action to make sure your vote is counted. No matter where you live, speak out against this blatant attempt to disenfranchise and silence us. And get involved in the other state Supreme Court races happening this year that will dictate what rights we retain and which ones we lose.
Because our vote is our power. It influences every aspect of our everyday lives, from the price of eggs at the grocery store, to the health care available at our doctor’s office, to the curriculum our professors teach in class. Republicans need to be held accountable for trying to strip us of that power. Their attempts to claw at the results of our free and fair elections are insidious for the health of this country — and they have gone on for far too long.
