Rigged
Allison Riggs beat the election-riggers.
She, her campaign and an army of allies – the Democratic Party, election attorneys and nonpartisan groups like Common Cause – fought a costly, arduous, six-month battle that finally prevailed over Jefferson Griffin and Republicans who were determined to overturn an election he lost.
But it was a close call. And it won’t be the last time Republicans try to steal an election in North Carolina.
It took a Trump-appointed federal judge to finally squelch the scheme.
The opinion by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II eviscerated Griffin’s case and exposed its fundamental flaw with this gem of a line:
“Th(e) principle will be familiar to anyone who has played a sport or board game. You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done.”
But in fact, as The News & Observer noted, six Republican judges on North Carolina’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals voted to change the rules after the game was done.
The outcome might have been different if the newly appointed Republican-majority Board of Elections – placed, ludicrously, under the control of Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek – had been in power earlier.
The lesson is clear.
Republicans in North Carolina, like Donald Trump, will stop at nothing – so far, short of violent attacks on the Capitol – to stay in power.
The root problem is partisan gerrymandering that has given a 50-50 state a 60-40 General Assembly.
The only way to root out the entrenched Republican Party bosses is redistricting reform that produces fair maps, competitive elections and true voter choice.
Achieving that goal will take two more Supreme Court elections, in 2026 and 2028; three more legislative elections, through 2030, and a redistricting battle that surely will go to the state and federal courts in 2031 and maybe beyond.
Riggs’ battle against the election-riggers took six months.
This battle will take at least six years.
It will require even more of the determined pursuit of justice that Justice Riggs and her allies demonstrated.
It will decide North Carolina’s future.
Rigged
Allison Riggs beat the election-riggers.
She, her campaign and an army of allies – the Democratic Party, election attorneys and nonpartisan groups like Common Cause – fought a costly, arduous, six-month battle that finally prevailed over Jefferson Griffin and Republicans who were determined to overturn an election he lost.
But it was a close call. And it won’t be the last time Republicans try to steal an election in North Carolina.
It took a Trump-appointed federal judge to finally squelch the scheme.
The opinion by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II eviscerated Griffin’s case and exposed its fundamental flaw with this gem of a line:
“Th(e) principle will be familiar to anyone who has played a sport or board game. You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done.”
But in fact, as The News & Observer noted, six Republican judges on North Carolina’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals voted to change the rules after the game was done.
The outcome might have been different if the newly appointed Republican-majority Board of Elections – placed, ludicrously, under the control of Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek – had been in power earlier.
The lesson is clear.
Republicans in North Carolina, like Donald Trump, will stop at nothing – so far, short of violent attacks on the Capitol – to stay in power.
The root problem is partisan gerrymandering that has given a 50-50 state a 60-40 General Assembly.
The only way to root out the entrenched Republican Party bosses is redistricting reform that produces fair maps, competitive elections and true voter choice.
Achieving that goal will take two more Supreme Court elections, in 2026 and 2028; three more legislative elections, through 2030, and a redistricting battle that surely will go to the state and federal courts in 2031 and maybe beyond.
Riggs’ battle against the election-riggers took six months.
This battle will take at least six years.
It will require even more of the determined pursuit of justice that Justice Riggs and her allies demonstrated.
It will decide North Carolina’s future.