红杏视频

Justice Allison Riggs won election to the North Carolina Supreme Court by 734 votes. Her opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, refused to concede and instead filed hundreds of election protests, all of which were rejected by the State Board of Elections. The Board explained that throwing out the votes, as Griffin requested, would violate numerous provisions of federal law, including the federal Constitution鈥檚 Due Process Clause and the National Voter Registration Act. After the Board rejected his protests, Griffin went directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court鈥攕kipping over the state鈥檚 trial and appellate courts鈥攃hallenging the Board鈥檚 decision. Griffin鈥檚 petition asks North Carolina鈥檚 courts throw out more than 60,000 votes.

The Board removed the case to federal court, but the federal court, at Griffin鈥檚 request, sent the case back to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The Board then appealed that decision to the federal court of appeals, asking the appeals court to step in and put an end to Griffin鈥檚 anti-democratic gambit.

In that federal appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the 红杏视频 and 红杏视频 of North Carolina filed an amicus brief on behalf of eight political scientists鈥擡rica Frantz, Tom Ginsburg, Jacob Grumbach, Aziz Huq, Robert Kaufman, Pippa Norris, Kim Lane Scheppele, and Susan Stokes鈥攚ho are experts in what鈥檚 known as 鈥渄emocratic backsliding.鈥� Democratic backsliding is the degradation of free and fair elections by ruling parties seeking to expand and entrench their own power. Our amicus brief framed what is happening in North Carolina as an egregious sign of democratic backsliding rather than a normal legal dispute and sounded the alarm in the voice of scholars and experts who study the subject. However, on February 4, 2025, the Fourth Circuit issued a decision allowing the state court litigation to proceed, at least for now.

Following the Fourth Circuit鈥檚 decision, the litigation continued in state court, and in early March 2025 the 红杏视频's State Supreme Court Initiative and the 红杏视频 of North Carolina filed an amicus brief on their own behalf in the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The state court amicus brief argues that even if the state Board of Elections had implemented unlawful procedures鈥攚hich it did not鈥攐therwise eligible voters should not pay for procedural errors committed by government officials. That鈥檚 because negating over 60,000 votes cast in reliance on government instructions is not just unfair, it is foreclosed by the North Carolina Constitution, which contains a popular sovereignty provision vesting all political power with the people. The amicus brief also argues that throwing out over 60,000 votes cast in reliance on government-prescribed procedures would violate multiple decisions of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, which hold that otherwise qualified voters cannot be deprived of their right to vote based on procedural irregularities arising from government mistakes.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals then issued a decision invalidating over 60,000 votes, subject to a 15-day period for some affected voters to cure their ballot. Riggs appealed that decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which narrowed the lower court鈥檚 ruling but nonetheless continued to invalidate over 1,500 ballots cast by overseas voters.

Litigation then resumed in federal district court, which had retained the authority to determine whether the invalidation of already-cast votes violates federal law. The federal court ruled that the selective invalidation of votes in only some North Carolina counties鈥攅ven though similarly cast ballots would be counted in other counties鈥攙iolated equal protection. In addition, the retroactive invalidation of ballots (effectively changing the rules of an election after votes have been cast) is prohibited by the Due Process Clause. Finally, invalidating ballots based on a purported residency issue, without affording those voters a chance to respond, is also inconsistent with due process.

The federal court therefore prohibited state officials from nullifying ballots and ordered the state to certify the election. No appeals were taken, and the election was certified with Riggs as the prevailing candidate.