On Friday, April 4, a North Carolina appeals court sided with N.C. Supreme Court candidate Judge Jefferson Griffin. Griffin, who lost the 2024 Supreme Court election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes — a defeat sustained across two recounts — believes that more than 65,000 state votes were cast illegally and should be discarded.
According to an Associated Press report, most of those 65,000-plus ballots are from individuals whose registration records lack a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security numbers. The rest of the contested ballots come from military or overseas voters who did not provide photo ID.
The appeals court’s two Republicans voted down its third Democrat member to side with Griffin and issued an order to the N.C. Board of Elections to tell county officials to contact con-tested voters and give them 15 business days to correct the alleged discrepancies in their records.
This decision was followed by a temporary block on the order issued on Monday by the North Carolina Supreme Court pending further decision from the highest court in the state.
Thegriffinlist.com, a database that compiles the more than 60,000 registered voters Griffin believes to be illegitimate, lists 108 of the voters as being from Macon County. A random sampling of those voters collected by The Franklin Press consists mostly of registered Republicans or Unaffiliated voters, with a handful of Democrats spattered throughout.
Most voters expressed surprise and confusion as to why their names appeared on the list, with Republican Scott Cummings of Franklin saying, “I lived here 50 years. I don’t want mine thrown out. I voted legally, so I don’t know why he wants mine thrown out.”
Cummings said he voted early at the community building on Georgia Road and showed his driver’s license in compliance with state voting laws. He said he did not know what to do and how to reconcile the issue.
“I don’t know until they contact me. What could be wrong?”
Cummings added he was unsure of how he would be contacted to correct the alleged discrepancy in his information, concerned that if he misses the attempt that his vote will simply be disregarded.
“I don’t know,” Republican Valerie Niskanen of Otto said when asked if she knew why her name ended up on the list. “I moved here in 2012. I vote in primaries and generals and it’s never been challenged. No one can tell me why, nobody at the Board of Elections. It’s a mystery.”
Niskanen added, “To me the voting process is sacred, and if they throw out my vote, I don’t know.”
Niskanen said that she had not been contacted by the Board of Elections, but by friends and family who had seen the list and saw her name on it. Since then, she has reached out to the Macon Board of Elections and been told her records had been fixed.
“My plan is to go back down in a couple of days,” Niskanen said. “They say everything is fine now, but I don’t know when it’ll be fixed … I just don’t trust the system right now.”
Democrat Lynn Hert of Franklin was more pointed in her criticism.
“I think it’s an attempt to discount votes …. One of many attempts,” Hert said. “I contacted the Board of Elections very quickly and they were very nice … my husband and I have lived here six years and no one has ever questioned it.”
Hert said that she moved to Franklin from out of state, and that at the time of her original registration she did not have a North Carolina driver’s license. She said that she had provided the board with updated documentation when she called Monday.
Republican Andrew Houston of Franklin was surprised about the situation, commenting that he was surprised to see a Republican contesting his vote given his registration and voting history. He said his wife was the one who saw his name on the list and informed him, and that he intended to set the record straight with the county board later this week.
“I just find that kind of odd,” Houston said.
Though none of the voters interviewed had been contacted by the state or local election officials, Macon County Board of Elections Director Melanie Thibault said she and her staff have been working to contact voters and correct information since Griffin’s protest was first made.
“In our county right now we’ve been working on this tirelessly,” Thibault said, adding that the board has managed to contact more than half of the contested voters and reconcile any records issues in place.
Thibault said the board was ordered not to continue contacting voters until otherwise notified.
“Most voters have been very angry over this,” Thibault said.