Why Is This Man Smiling?

 

RALEIGH -- Republican Jefferson Griffin is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to intervene in his effort to challenge over 60,000 ballots cast in his race for the high court. 

The State Board of Elections dismissed Griffin’s ballot protests, but has not taken a final step of certifying the election. Griffin now asks the court, which has a 5 to 2 Republican majority, to prohibit the board from certifying the election and to throw out the challenged ballots....

Griffin, who trails Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs by 734 votes following two recounts of the results, argues that the state improperly counted ballots from ineligible voters across the state which, if removed from the vote count, could swing the race in his favor. 

In a news release, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said Griffin has “refused to face reality and admit that he lost the Supreme Court race.” 

“... He is now trying to achieve what’s been aiming for all along: getting the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court to toss out legitimate ballots and hand this seat to him,” she said.

 [N and O]