Unable to Win, GOP Tries to Steal
Over to the Robert's Court
Magicians, pickpockets, and the Republican Party all share a common trait: they rely on guiding a person's attention away from what is truly happening. A magician engages the audience's focus with intentional movements, objects, or speech, distracting from the mechanics of the trick. A pickpocket uses misdirection to perform their theft unnoticed.
The Republican Party does both.
On November 5th, Democrat Allison Riggs won a tight race against Republican Jefferson Griffin for the North Carolina Supreme Court. After the initial count, Riggs led Griffin by 734 votes out of over 5.5 million cast. The Republicans couldn’t accept it. A machine recount was ordered, and the results remained the same—Riggs still led by 734 votes. The Republicans still couldn’t accept it.
They demanded a hand recount.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) declined to order a full recount but agreed to a partial one. The NCSBE randomly selected precincts for hand counts and said they would order a full recount if significant discrepancies emerged. The partial hand count yielded the same result—Democrat Allison Riggs won the race.
The Republicans still couldn’t accept it. Now, they want the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out 60,000 ballots, arguing that these votes weren’t lawfully cast.
The GOP is now challenging votes in three categories:
Voter registration records lacking driver’s licenses or containing partial Social Security numbers.
Overseas voters who have never lived in the U.S. but whose parents were deemed North Carolina residents.
Military or overseas voters who did not provide copies of photo identification with their ballots.
The GOP knows these categories will likely give Democrats a significant lead. So, they’re hoping the U.S. Supreme Court, which has shown favor for MAGA wins, will toss out enough ballots to tilt the race in their favor.
The North Carolina Supreme Court has seven justices—five Republicans and two Democrats. They serve eight-year terms. With five Republican justices on their side, why is the GOP going all out to deny the Democrats one seat? The answer lies in the terms of four justices, which end in 2026 or 2028. Of those, only one is a Democrat—Justice Anita Earls. The other three are Republicans: Chief Justice Paul Newby, Justice Philip Berger Jr., and Justice Tamara Barringer.
What if the Democrats gain the majority in 2028? It’s a real possibility. Redistricting for the U.S. House of Representatives occurs every 10 years, after the Census. The next Census is in 2030, and when North Carolina submits its new redistricting maps, a Democratic-controlled Supreme Court could reject them and demand fairer ones.
North Carolina has been gerrymandered in such a way that the GOP currently holds a clear edge. In 2024, the GOP won 10 of the state’s 14 House seats, while Democrats won only 4.
If the GOP had lost North Carolina, they could have lost control of the House. That’s why they’re thinking long-term. They’re fighting for this one Supreme Court seat to protect against potential setbacks in the 2026 or 2028 elections. Their goal is to control the court, because controlling the court means controlling the maps. And controlling the maps is key to maintaining their grip on the House.
God knows what the Roberts Court will do, but we need to make sure they know we’re watching.
And North Carolina is a fairly evenly split state yet the GOP has 10 of 14 US House seats and a supermajority in the NC Senate and, until January, a supermajority in the NC House. Only 2 or 3 state Senate seats were competitive out of 50. This is NOT democracy.