North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said she’s “absolutely” concerned that the state Supreme Court could overturn the results of a race for a seat on the court that has now gone to two recounts.
The results of the initial count and the first recount both showed incumbent Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs leading Republican Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge, by 734 votes. But Griffin requested a second recount partially done by hand that was completed Tuesday.
Clayton at a press conference Tuesday pointed to efforts from the GOP-led state Legislature attempting to strip power from Democratic officials as evidence that the state Supreme Court, with a current 5-2 conservative majority, could throw out the results.
In addition to the recounts, Griffin has challenged the validity of 60,000 ballots cast in the race.
“Do I have fear? Absolutely,” Clayton said. “Are we going to do everything in our power to protect these voters and to protect the democracy that we currently still have when we have two branches of government right now that are using their power unconstitutionally, in my opinion? Yes.”
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed the proposed legislation that easily passed the Republican-dominated Legislature that would allocate $227 million from the state’s savings fund to a relief fund to respond to the effects of Hurricane Helene but would also make a wide range of changes to power in the state.
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