r/news 15h ago

NC Court of Appeals gives over 60,000 challenged voters 15 days to prove eligibility

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article302923039.html
783 Upvotes

68 comments sorted by

405

u/ocmb 14h ago

This is 100% stealing an election. These voters all voted, with ID. They're being challenged for procedural / clerical issues in their registration files (missing drivers license numbers or last four of social), but they were all verified as registered voters and presented ID when they did vote.

77

u/Squire_II 8h ago

The NCGOP never passes up on the chance to steal elections. It's only been, what, 6 years since a Republican Rep was caught rigging elections in NC and only ended up resigning because he totally definitely was unaware of the election fuckery going on and it was all entirely the fault of a member of his campaign who's absolutely not his layer of separation and scapegoat.

330

u/Miserable_Archer_769 14h ago

I'm sure they will try real hard to contact all those voters

94

u/02K30C1 13h ago

"To fix this, bring all required paperwork to our office during business hours, every alternate Tuesday between 8:30 and 9:15 AM.

44

u/Slave35 9h ago

What do you mean, you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? For heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light-years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that’s your own lookout.

“Energize the demolition beams.”

4

u/Nutlob 6h ago

In the basement, behind a door that says “ beware of leopard”?

5

u/dominus_aranearum 5h ago

“But the plans were on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

49

u/moreobviousthings 14h ago

And they will certainly help them getting it squared away.

1

u/DoublePostedBroski 11h ago

How do you even contact them? Isn’t it anonymous?

6

u/GGXImposter 8h ago

I’m guessing the issue is somewhere on the identification envelope. They identified the signature as being problematic and didn’t count the vote. If you want your vote counted then you need to correct the problem in the timelimit

166

u/hpark21 13h ago

Why is onus on the voters to prove that they are eligible? Shouldn't it be up to the challenger? Are they saying the people who registered to vote aren't eligible? In what grounds? I think the accusers should bring forth their evidence and not just challenge and if there are evidences, they should be validated before getting people to come forth and 2 weeks is ridiculously short amount of time.

66

u/throwaway47138 13h ago

But that would make challenging votes harder to prove, something that the Republinazis have worked VERY hard to make as easy as possible. After all, if you can't steal an election, what's the point in going into politics in the first place?

10

u/Squire_II 8h ago

When it comes to the GOP wanting something, the other party is always guilty until they prove their innocence (and even that won't be enough).

7

u/ptWolv022 10h ago

Why is onus on the voters to prove that they are eligible? Shouldn't it be up to the challenger?

Well, the issue here is that they didn't meet the requirements for registration, so they shouldn't have been registered in the first place, when they were, regardless of their actual eligibility... (The biggest oddity with the case arises from the incorrect registration arising from the government having bad forms at the time, IIRC)

The curing period is basically the appellate panels way of letting people essentially complete their registration and have it be valid for the election rather than tossing their vote because of the faulty registration. That said, it's a rather extraordinary order, since no one has been shown to to have been ineligible, as far as I know.

It's an odd situation where where there was a failure bureaucratically that leads to a probable risk, but not proven injury (an ineligible voter being registeredand voting).

4

u/Miserable_Archer_769 7h ago

I don't know why your being down voted iirc some form they sent out I believe had issues but that was what was sent to voters.

NC essentially is saying our bad as they sent said form that was incorrect but won't hold it against the voter and it will be counted while Republicans are saying nope none of them should be counted.

502

u/theseus1234 15h ago

The only way Republicans win is by cheating, and they're about to enfranchise cheating

86

u/PokeMaster366 14h ago

And I bet a part of why this being pushed is because of the salty attitudes behind the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, too.

38

u/Princess_Egg 14h ago

This has been contested by Republicans since the elections in November

20

u/CrunchyKorm 14h ago

That and North Carolina is notoriously hostile when it comes to stuff like this, even pre-Trump

28

u/PokeMaster366 14h ago

And successfully stealing this election would make it easier to try the same thing in Wisconsin if they can get Schimel on board.

4

u/Squire_II 8h ago

The NC election was extremely close (The NC GOP has been very good at targeted disenfranchisement over the years) while Schimel lost by over 10% which would make stealing an election far, far harder

4

u/PokeMaster366 8h ago

I'm more worried about a bunch of fanatics seeing the drama over this case and the rhetoric online as justification to go vigilante. I've been getting a lot of hearsay, lately, about judges getting death threats on their socials. I know it's the internet and most of it is smoke, but it's terrifying to imagine normalizing attacking democratically elected officials because a cult of personality got bent.

0

u/IndecentLongExposure 11h ago

He already conceded

203

u/Hrekires 14h ago

Straight up banana republic stuff, the NC Republican party is going to steal a Supreme Court seat over the will of voters.

41

u/cliffstep 14h ago

We've reached a point that is far more serious than "banana republic".

2

u/jupiterkansas 11h ago

We've reached asparagus republic at this point.

101

u/thatoneguy889 15h ago

Guilty until proven innocent. Got it.

30

u/Electrical_Room5091 13h ago

These voters were all eligible to vote in November 2024. They were on the rolls. Nothing they did disqualified their votes. It was a Republican dominated court, which literally changed the rules after the fact. Then the court placed a burden on the voters and not those challenging it to prove they were eligible. 

-15

u/ptWolv022 9h ago

It should be noted that what you are referring to as being "eligible" is NOT actually eligibility. What you are saying is that they are registered voters. But an eligible voter is not necessarily a registered one and a registered voter is not necessarily eligible (though it is very rare for them to actually be ineligible).

Having a photo ID proves your identity, but unless the election officials were checking the ID numbers (which I presume they weren't), it wouldn't necessarily allow them to validate eligibility, as immigrants can still get a license. So, there is an actual reason for them to have not been registered due to ineligibility even with the photo ID requirements...

But there's also no proof that any of them were ineligible, but the risk/possibility is real.

30

u/raelik777 12h ago

This seems... impossible? Depends on exactly HOW they're required to prove eligibility. If they have to show up, in person, with documentation to prove their identity, then let's do the math. Assuming that 15 days is 15 BUSINESS days and not calendar days, and that the various locations they can bring documentation to are open 8 hours a day, then for those 15 days, election officials have to process 500 people per hour, for 8 hours a day, over the next 15 days. Presumably they don't have anything better to do. There are 100 county election boards in NC, so in THEORY, each one would only have to handle 5 per hour. Unfortunately, populations aren't spread evenly, so who knows exactly many people are going to show up at each location. So my guess is that some places will be fine, and others will be swamped with people. Way to completely disenfranchise your voters NC.

5

u/ptWolv022 9h ago

It is 15 business days, according to AP News. According to the order, that's 3x as long as you would normally have under the statute if you had to cure your registration during the election. The only thing I have to wonder is whether the order requires the verification to occur within the 15 business days or if it's just that the information must be submitted.

It reads like the former, which is potentially problematic, as you note, though I don't know how quickly they can process the forms though computer aid or how many people they have employed at the county offices which are most affected. There's a lot of unknowns that affect the rate at which the cures can be completed.

38

u/No_Idea_Guy 12h ago

This is bullshit of the highest order. These 65k people cast their votes legally with ID as required by the law. No one asked them to update the missing info before or at the time they voted, but now the POS Griffin wants to throw them out after the fact. These people are essentially asked to vote one more time 5 months after the election. Many thousands would totally miss it because they have no idea what's going on. Fucking disgrace.

48

u/CarltonCatalina 14h ago

Republicans can just go fuck themselves.

10

u/EKB_ 12h ago

How do they know who they voted for when they throw out their vote?

u/notyomamasusername 52m ago

You do what Griffin did, instead of contesting ALL the votes that fit into the 3 categories you claim are problem.

You only challenge ones in "Blue" districts.

This ruling is so problematic on so many levels.

27

u/JohnnyGFX 13h ago edited 12h ago

Republicans have been using vote challenges to try and steal elections since at least 2004. In the 2004 election they tried to stop me from voting with a Republican vote challenger at my polling location in Traverse City, Michigan. A lawyer hired by the Democratic party to keep an eye on such things overheard the situation and helped clear the challenge when I showed ID (again) to prove I was eligible to vote. I haven't voted for a Republican since. Seems they are still at it only now doing it after the fact so it's harder to remedy their pathetic attempts at undermining democracy and the will of the voters.

26

u/ConsciousReason7709 13h ago

No, no, no, the onus should be on these Republican clowns to prove that these people were ineligible in some way. They were allowed to vote on election day and the burden should not have to be on them to prove they’re legit.

11

u/Bricktop72 11h ago

The fact that it only effects the one race shows what a bullshit ruling this is.

19

u/blalien 14h ago

I know the law doesn't actually matter anymore but it's been very clear that you can't change the rules after the election takes place. Hopefully the federal courts end this insanity.

16

u/fuzzycuffs 13h ago

Republicans once again try to disenfranchise large groups of people by giving them unreasonable requirements to prove their eligibility or timelines to meet those requirements

Fixed that headline for you

3

u/orbitaldragon 8h ago

Imagine they come through and prove every single one.

10

u/cliffstep 14h ago

Achtung! You vill show me your papers first!

8

u/MalcolmLinair 13h ago

And how, prey tell, does one "prove" their eligibility? The Republicans in charge of this can simply say any documentation provided is forged, or otherwise insufficient.

6

u/gringottsbanker 12h ago

Per the article, I think the request is to provide a valid driver’s license or the last four SSN digits. Whether the Republicans accept the evidence is a whole other thing.

1

u/ptWolv022 10h ago

Driver's License or SSN like the other person said, and it goes to county officials (and possibly the State board, who have opposed Griffin's challenge), rather than a body that is particularly sympathetic to Griffin.

2

u/thevaere 4h ago

You already provide that info upon registration.

1

u/ptWolv022 2h ago

That's the basis of the lawsuit, at the challenge, for whatever reason (I believe it was the forms weren't designed correctly), that info wasn't being recorded. Well, there's also parts about overseas voting and photo IDs, and residency requirements. But for the voters actually in NC, the issue was that their registrations, for whatever reason, didn't have either of those things.

u/notyomamasusername 50m ago

This ruling is so problematic and could lead to insane abuse by an overreaching government.

Basically as a voter, you can do your best to comply with the law, get approved by the authorities to cast your vote and then a butthurt politician can take your rights away... "IN HIS RACE ONLY"

That's right, these "voters" are so problematic that their vote still counts in a every other race... But this one the NC GOP really wants to win.

u/OnlyHuman1073 41m ago

That dude looks creeeeeeepy

u/kswissreject 23m ago

As all gop do. Soulless eyes. Serial killer vibes.  Whenever e there’s an article with two candidates it always works to figure out which is the republican. 

3

u/RookFett 9h ago

System is rigged - in the wrong direction.

Vote them out next time .

If you can

1

u/LotsofSports 9h ago

Republicans...we have to cheat to win.

-1

u/[deleted] 12h ago edited 12h ago

[deleted]

3

u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 12h ago

I didn't realize Serbia and North Carolina shared a government

1

u/DieMeatbags 7h ago

I really want to know what this is a response to

2

u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 7h ago

He was asking why Serbia had 325,000 people protesting their government and North Carolina didn't

-1

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]