In 2019 and 2020, Jefferson Griffin utilized military absentee ballots to vote in North Carolina elections while serving as a member of the Army National Guard.

Griffin, who is currently attempting to reverse the results of a state Supreme Court election that was unfavorable to him, is now requesting that the same court invalidate the ballots of approximately 5,500 individuals who voted in a similar manner to his own, as North Carolina Public Radio reported.

Griffin, a Republican justice on the state's Court of Appeals, has made numerous attempts to invalidate Allison Riggs' reelection to the state's highest court last year, which she won by a margin of 734 votes.

Griffin filed a legal petition last week, contending that the election should be awarded to him, and the Republican majority on the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the certification of Riggs' win.

The Argument

Griffin's attorneys contended in a briefing that ballots cast by military and overseas voters should not be counted unless they also submitted photo identification, such as a photocopy of a driver's license.

Before the election, the state election board had issued a rule that stated that electors of this nature were not required to present identification. However, his stance is in direct opposition to this ruling.

Griffin's utilization of these military ballots, which reporters verified through an open records request and publicly accessible voting data, has not been previously documented.

At Issue

While serving as a captain and judge advocate general in the North Carolina Army National Guard, Griffin submitted two absentee ballot requests.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA, was a federal law that applied to them.

In August 2019, Griffin requested an absentee ballot for a municipal election. He attested that he was a "Member of the Uniformed Services or Merchant Marine on active duty and currently absent from county of residence" by checking a box.

Griffin provided his address as Fort Bliss, Texas, and he was a member of the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team of the North Carolina Army National Guard.

Case History

Griffin submitted an identical absentee ballot request for the March 2020 primary election in January 2020. He once again indicated that he was "on active duty in the Uniformed Services."

North Carolina did not have a law in effect at that time that mandated the provision of a photo identification card for in-person or absentee voters. (The law was enacted in 2018, but it did not become effective until late 2023.)

When reporters sent Griffin a list of questions, he replied saying: “I am not allowed to comment on pending litigation. It would be a violation of our NC Code of Judicial Conduct for me to do so.”

The campaign manager for Riggs, Embry Owen, took issue with Griffin's position in the lawsuit:

“Active-duty members of the military who are serving our country overseas count on their rights under UOCAVA to vote and make their voice heard. The same is true for members of the foreign service and missionaries in the field,” Owen said. “Any attempt to silence these voters is a shame on North Carolina’s democracy.”