Theresa Opeka
Carolina Journal
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted Wednesday mostly along party lines to reject election protests from Republican Jefferson Griffin and three legislative candidates.
Griffin challenged that over 60,000 ballots cast in the state’s Supreme Court election, arguing they should be thrown out.
Democrat Allison Riggs picked up 14 more votes than Griffin in a partial hand recount. That result announced Tuesday afternoon means the State Board of Elections will not conduct a full statewide hand recount.
After a statewide machine recount, the appointed incumbent Riggs led Griffin by 734 votes out of more than 5.5 million ballots cast statewide.
Legislative candidates include Rep. Frank Sossamon, R-Vance, in House District 32, Stacie McGinn in Senate District 42, and Ashlee Bryan Adams in Senate District 18.
Before the proceedings started, NCSBE Democrat Board Chairman Alan Hirsch rejected a request by the North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) to disqualify Democrat board member Siobhan Millen from participating in the proceedings due to a conflict of interest.
Millen’s husband, Pressly Millen, is a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, the law firm that represents Riggs, who is currently leading in a recount of votes against Griffin.
Hirsch said he reviewed the request and determined that Ms. Millen didn’t have a conflict and could participate.
The three protests that were considered included those regarding registered voters whose database records do not contain a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number; a protest that concerns overseas and military voters who did not provide a photo ID with their absentee ballots; and, the third category of a subset of overseas and military voters who had never resided in the United States, but have a parental connection to North Carolina and under the statutes may use special procedures for military and overseas voters to vote absentee ballots.
The board left three other categories of protests to county boards. They include whether people voted while serving a felony sentence, voted and died before Election Day and whether any voters who cast ballots in the General Election were denied or removed and, therefore, not registered.
Craig Schauer, GOP attorney, said the protests challenged voters indiscriminately.
“We challenged registered Democrats, registered Republicans, and Unaffiliated voters without any favoritism,” Schauer said. “We believe the law matters and that election laws should be enforced, and if you are ineligible to vote, your vote should not be counted, regardless of your party affiliation. No one is above the law, not even those voters who may have voted for my clients.”
Hirsch, Millen, and fellow Democrat member Jeff Carmon expressed concern about how postcards with QR codes were sent out that notified voters that their votes were being challenged.
“You must be aware that many voters did not understand what this postcard did,” Hirsch told Schauer. “Some had no idea what to do with the QR code. Many others, even if they looked at the QR code, had no idea what they were seeing once they got to the website.” They also added that it was hard for a person to find their names on the website.
Millen and Carmon likened the postcards to junk mail that most people throw out.
Schauer disagreed, stating that many contacted him to say the postcards were very effective.
GOP attorneys also stressed that if the state election board had followed a cure process for ballots they and others requested earlier in the year, they wouldn’t have to be here today.
Attorney Ray Bennett, representing Riggs, also asserted the postcards with the QR codes appeared similar to junk mail and that Griffin’s attorneys are trying to change the rules.
“So, while the strategy of waiting until the election is over and the voters have spoken but then trying to pick your voters instead of having the voters choose the candidate is prohibited under several federal laws because the temptation is great,” he said.
Attorneys Will Robertson, James Whalen, and Shana Bolton represented Terence Everitt, Woodson Bradley, Brian Cohen, and the North Carolina Democratic Party.
“Protesters are not here today asking you to correct irregularities,” Robertson said. “To be clear, they are here today asking you to overturn settled election law and to retroactively disenfranchise their neighbors, all of whom have a right to have their ballots counted. The arguments you’ve heard from protesters today are not faithful to established state and federal law and protesters only now challenge these rules because they don’t like their election results. Even worse, the voters that protesters are challenging here today unquestionably are eligible voters.”
The board returned to the issue of whether the postcards with QR codes sent to those whose votes were questioned were a valid form of notification.
“I can’t wrap my mind around an arbitrary postcard being noticed for something as important as my right to vote,” Carmon said.
Millen agreed, saying it was like a car warranty scam that you would throw out, and there were deficiencies having to do with the QR code and how hard it was for people to find their name on some of the lists.
Republican board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV said the postcards were minimally compliant, while fellow Republican board member Kevin Lewis said voters were given substantial notice with the postcards.
“Many people do not know what a QR code is and would not take the risk of taking their phone and focusing on the QR code from an unknown recipient of a clause which does not suggest that it’s actually a legal notice of any kind and even then when you get to the list, it’s extremely unclear what’s there and how to find who you are,” Hirsch said.
Hirsch, Millen, and Carmon voted that the protests were not properly served with the postcards and did not substantially comply, while Eggers and Lewis voted that they were.
Board members also voted the same, 3-2 along party lines, regarding the protest of registered voters whose database records do not contain a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
Eggers said a Help America Vote Act (HAVA) complaint was brought to them over a year ago and, as a board, they “dropped the ball” on it.
Carmon disagreed.
“I think it’s simple,” Carmon said. “These people have voted in many prior elections. It’s nothing that they did wrong. They were on the rolls. They showed up with their voter ID, so I don’t see any irregularities.”
On the motion that the protests regarding overseas citizens, including those in the military who have never resided in North Carolina but have a parental connection to the state and do not allege a violation of law irregularity or misconduct in the conduct of the General Election, the vote was the same, 3-2, along party lines.
As voter ID is now state law, the board did vote unanimously that the protests concerning the ballots of military and overseas citizen voters that are not accompanied by photo ID, or an ID exception form do not allege a violation of law irregularity or misconduct in the conduct of the General Election.
“The importance of people being able to vote and not be disenfranchised is extraordinarily important,” Hirsch said at the end of the meeting. “That’s a fundamental constitutional right. It’s what makes our democracy run, and while I regret our lack of unanimity, I appreciate the fact that we are allowing everyone’s vote to be counted.”
The protests can move to court, as state law allows Griffin to appeal the board’s rejection to Wake County Superior Court and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court.
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