This North Carolina election is finally over. A Republican can concede after all. | Opinion
A Trump-appointed federal judge ruled to certify the results of a North Carolina election that Republicans have been trying to steal since November.
This opinion column has been updated with the latest news.
The saga of North Carolina’s never-ending election is finally over. Despite their attempts, Republicans were thankfully unable to overturn the November 2024 election results.
On May 5, a federal judge ruled against Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court, who attempted to throw out more than 65,000 ballots after losing to Allison Riggs, the Democratic incumbent. The latest ruling was to certify the results.
On May 7, Griffin conceded to Riggs, ending the six-month fight over the empty seat.
Although Riggs only won by 734 votes, multiple recounts proved that she was the winner of the race. It was only after Griffin lost that he contested tens of thousands of ballots, alleging that these voters had failed to fill out their paperwork correctly or had never even lived in the state.
While this is the reasonable result from the ongoing legal drama, the battle didn’t need to play out in the first place. It isn’t right that North Carolinians had their tax dollars wasted on court proceedings that ultimately didn’t change the election result, nor is it good that democracy was even questioned in this way.
Trump-appointed judge ruled North Carolina election should end
The fact that the ruling came from a judge appointed by President Donald Trump makes this victory even sweeter. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Richard Myers compared the legal battle to a board game or sporting event.
“You establish the rules before the game,” Myers wrote. “You don't change them after the game is done. This consolidated action concerns an attempt to change the rules of the game after it had been played.”
This is similar to what former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr told me in March.
It also echoes a dissent from Justice Richard Dietz, who cited the "Purcell principle" as one of the reasons he ruled against Griffin in April. The principle essentially states that election laws shouldn’t be changed close to an election to avoid voter confusion.
Ultimately, the fact that there were other Republicans publicly disagreeing with Griffin should have been the final nail in the coffin. Instead, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel ruled in favor of Griffin in April, paving the way for thousands of military and overseas votes to be thrown out.
Now thanks to Myers’ ruling, if it stands, those ballots will still count.
This will save thousands of voters from unnecessary extra steps to ensure their votes in this particular race are counted, as they were in every other 2024 election.
Griffin concedes, but don't forget how Republicans tried to override voters
While a spokesperson for Griffin told ABC11 on May 5 that the legal team was still weighing their options, the fight ended two days later when he conceded the race. Now, the state board of elections must certify the results.
“While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis," Griffin said in a statement first reported by The Associated Press, "I respect the court’s holding ‒ just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case.”
That's a nice sentiment, but it doesn't change the fact that the Republican effort has challenged voters' trust in the election process and legal system.
Voters should be able to trust their elected judges. They should be able to trust that their votes matter. This entire process has eroded that trust; even though the ruling is being treated as a win by the Democratic Party, the damage has already been done.
Republicans have proved that they would rather waste tax dollars trying to fix an election in their favor than admit defeat. In the end, however, the candidate who won the election also won the legal challenges. That's how democracy should work.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno