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The MeidasTouch Podcast
Justice Allison Riggs Reacts to Latest NC Court Ruling on Supreme Court Election
00:23:21
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- [00:01]
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- [01:00]
News Host
To talk about one of the most important elections that is still playing out right now that people need to talk about right now, and that is the North Carolina Supreme Court race. Let me break down what happened. I'm sure you heard about it because this really deals with issues of voter disenfranchisement of 65,000 plus North Carolina voters. And this is a playbook that has, that is being tested right now in North Carolina that Republicans in maga, in my view, want to bring to other states as well when they lose elections. So back in November, of course, there were general elections, there were other elections, House races, Senate races, Supreme Court races, and states. Remember how we've been covering the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin where there was a vacant seat there? Well, there was an election for a seat in North Carolina and it was a seat that was held by Associate Justice Allison Riggs. She's the Democratic candidate. She was appointed in 2023 and her opponent in that race was a North Carolina Court of Appeals judge by the name of Jefferson Griffin. He's the and a Republican MAGA candidate. So in North Carolina also, you have voter id. You know, Republicans talk about voter id. There was an election that was held. The Democratic candidate, Alison Riggs, won the election by 734 votes or so. Jefferson Griffin, the MAGA Republican candidate, called for a recount. Recount one is held and Alison Riggs wins the recount. Recount two is held. Alison Riggs wins the election. Now, in normal circumstances, Justice Allison Riggs is the winner. Two recounts, voter id following all the election laws, race is over. Right? Well, that's not what happened. Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate, said, no, I'm filing lawsuits I'm a judge, North Carolina Court of Appeals judge. I'm filing lawsuits. So litigation was held. There was a stay that was issued by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Just so you know the composition of the North Carolina Supreme Court, it's five Republican aligned judges, two Democratic aligned judges. Because Justice Allison Riggs is involved in the case, she recused herself. So it was a 5:1 ruling. It stayed Justice Riggs being declared the winner. Stay mean pause stopped her from being declared even though she won the two recounts. And then litigation brought by Jefferson Griffin has played its way out through the courts. And then on Friday, the day I'm recording this, we got a ruling from a right leaning Republican leaning court of Appeals. And remember what I said before that Jefferson Griffin also is on the Court of Appeals. He wasn't on this panel, but he's a Court of Appeal judge. And there was a two to one ruling. You see it? This is how it's being reported on WECT 6 News saying Jefferson Griffin wins this election lawsuit. Now 65,000 ballots based on this ruling of voters who voted are being challenged as not being voters even though they went through all the steps and processes. Now you may be saying, huh, what type of voters are these? What's even going on here? Well, one of the things that was discovered is that people like Justice Allison Riggs own parents are part of that batch of 65,000 that are being challenged. What's being challenged are absentee ballots, members of the military overseas and other people overseas. And then there are other claims about the way the, the way the ballots are being made or whatever. No one really even knows what's even going on here, but just Alison Riggs own parents who voted for their daughter. They've been under this formula, they'll be disenfranchised as will 65,000 others. Here they are talking about it. What went down when they were shocked to learn what had transpired. Let's play it.
- [05:29]
Justice Allison Riggs
The list of challenged voters includes the parents of Griffin's rival, Allison Riggs. They came to the event to read out their own names. We are Christine Riggs and Jack Riggs, Allison Riggs, dad and mom. And we would very much like our vote to be counted. Were you surprised to see your name on the list? I was shocked to say the least. The Riggs don't know why they were challenged. I mean, I've been voting for 50 years now. I've never been challenged, never had a problem and all of a sudden now my vote doesn't count.
- [06:03]
News Host
Let's bring in Justice Allison Riggs, I gave long introduction there because I wanted to try to break down all the complexity before bringing you in. If I missed anything or misspoke, you could let me know. But I tried my best to summarize it in simple terms. But I just want to get your reaction first, I guess, to the ruling. And if I had any errors there, you could correct me also, of course.
- [06:26]
Justice Allison Riggs
Well, thank you so much for having me today. It's such an honor to get to speak to your audience. Tomorrow is five months since election day. That's five months in which over 65,000, really it's over 68,000 North Carolina voters have felt stuck and scared. Voters like my parents, who did everything right, did everything that was asked of them, have never had issues voting before and they don't know what's going to happen to their vote because of this protracted litigation. I, before joining the bench, was a civil rights attorney. I focused on voting rights. So this is an area of law that I know well. And I can tell you that what my opponent seeks to do by tossing ballots, like my parents. My dad was a served 30 years in the military, including deployment in wartime, and he used his military ID to register to vote, brought all the right documents. My mom used her driver's license, showed her driver's license when she went to vote this year to vote for me amongst other people. And she does not understand, and most people don't, why a woman who showed her driver's license number is being challenged because her voter file allegedly is lacking a driver's license number. She says to me, I showed them that. And it's really hard. And my heart breaks because I know that there are tens of thousands of people across North Carolina, like my parents, who are not political activists, they're not politicians. They just are doing their civic duty, going out to be heard. And what I am doing now, I am fighting to make sure that the will of North Carolina voters is respected. I am fighting to make sure that the precious fundamental right to vote is protected in this state because not just because of my background and my commitment to this important right, but because I put my hand on a Bible and swore an oath to God that I would defend our state and federal constitution and the rights protected therein. And so I, I am trying to make sure that folks know that. I never thought this fight was going to be easy. I was a civil rights attorney. I understand what a tough fight looks like. I knew that this was going to be a long, hard fight. But I, I need people to know that what's happening in North Carolina matters across the country. What, what my opponent and his allies are trying to do here is what they tried in 2020 and 2022 and failed to do, which is stop the certification of election, overturn election results that they don't like. And if they succeed here, if they succeed in North Carolina, it is like dropping a match in a dry forest, and we will not be able to contain the spread. So I know that this fight is about more than North Carolina. It's more than my seat and my oath. It is about the very soul of our democracy. And I will not stop standing up for voters and standing in the way of any politician that tries to take the power away from the people.
- [10:05]
News Host
So there was this ruling today on Friday, two to one ruling that would attack those 65,000 votes, including the votes of your parents, people who followed the process in a state with voter id, who gave all of the documentation that they were supposed to give, who don't even understand how it's possible when they did everything right, that their name was flagged as one of these votes that don't get counted. And now you have on the court of appeals, though, even though there was recount one, recount two, they're saying, we think that these 65,000 votes are going to have to go through what, some other process. So what happens now? I guess both in terms of the litigation, where does that go? And then people in North Carolina, what do they need to know right now? And what message should they be getting out so that in an age where people are like, is this an election? What do I do? There's, there's a lot going on. The markets are crashing. People don't know what to do. So you, you address both of those.
- [11:12]
Justice Allison Riggs
Yeah, I, I'm. This is why I'm so glad you took the time to break down the case. We're in state court right now. In the system in which I serve, I think that this case is. And so today's decision, Friday's decision, the decision of the court of appeals, is deeply misinformed. I will promptly appeal it. And this is going to work its way through the state court system. But I ultimately believe that this matter is going to get resolved in federal court because there are federal law that protect the rights of voters to vote, even if an administrative record is missing some information. There are laws on the books that ensure military voters can vote. And to be clear, my opponent is. And the court of appeals ruling today would disenfranchise 5,000, 500 military overseas voters, deployed service members and in only four of North Carolina's 100 counties. So my opponent didn't challenge all of the 32,000 military voters. We use the acronym UACAVA. He didn't challenge all 32,000 of those voters. He picked four of the most Democratic counties in the state state and challenged 5,500 voters in those counties. And so I need voters to know just how problematic and cynical this legal strategy is and that I will not give an inch. I will take this to federal court. I will take it all the way up to the United States Supreme Court if I need to. But we need people to know one that this is going to take six, nine, maybe 12 months to resolve. This is not going to end anytime soon. And I understand how hard it is for people to deal with this kind of stuff when the markets are crashing and you turn on the national news and your blood pressure rises. There's a lot of outrage fatigue right now. I need people to sign up to follow what's going on in my case. Sign up on my website rigs for our courts.com follow me on social media. Stay on top of this. There's going to be a lot of developments in this case in the next few weeks, but also it's not going to end. And it's a lesson to all of us. We saw what happened in Wisconsin this week. Voters in Wisconsin said justice is not for sale. We want people of a strong constitutional conviction on the bench. It's why we fight so hard for our state courts. In a world now where federal courts have said there's nothing we will do about extreme partisan gerrymandering, where federal courts have said a woman's access to health care is going to be decided state by state. So state legislature reviewed by state court. State courts matter more than ever and we every year will continue to have these critical state court races. I am working now as you mentioned, there's only one other Democrat on the North Carolina Supreme Court right now, Justice Anita Earls. She is up in 2026 and we are working on a multi cycle plan to win back our courts for justice in 2028 before for the next round of redistricting to make sure that North Carolina people in North Carolina can trust the people who don the robe, who sit on the bench to put them above power and politics to center people and their rights to defend institutions that are needed as a check and balance. I know we hear a lot and especially from the legal community about the importance of the rule of law and of our institutions. What we know from looking across the world is that democracies die when our institutions fail us, when our courts stop being willing to stand up against political pressure and stand up and do what is right and what the law demands. And so we are fighting down here. It's a fight for the very soul of democracy. It is a fight that North Carolinians are ready to have. And they made a decision. Voters made a decision in November. They elected me to keep my seat for the next eight years. And I will make sure that the will of voters gets respected. Because if my opponent is long term successful in this effort, elections will never end. And people in power will decide which elections they get to respect the results of and which they don't. You'll remember Donald Trump won North Carolina in 2024. No one is challenging the legitimacy of that election. And in fact, no one can point to one single voter who was not eligible to vote in this election whose vote is being challenged now. My I can guarantee you my parents were. I can guarantee you every voter I have talked to on that list and we are doing work to reach all of them, they are all eligible voters. And disenfranchising an eligible voter is never okay.
- [17:04]
News Host
I think that's such an important point because you mentioned Jefferson Griffin didn't attack all of the absentee votes. He picked the 5,000 that were most likely leaning Democratic. And the Republican Party in North Carolina isn't challenging this issue for all the elections. They're taking these 65,000 votes and saying, just apparently as it relates to this one Supreme Court race, we're challenging it. But when it comes to the Republicans winning this congressional seat or Donald Trump winning, we're not going to challenge those. Those were fine even when they're on literally the same ballot as yours. But we're going to just focus here on the Supreme Court race. So it is kind of reverse engineering an outcome that they wanted after the election, after the recounts, after voter id. And then they're relying on people that they know, I think, on the courts, to just affirm their outcome that they wanted before the election. So it's important that we highlight this where, say again, where people go. And if you can spell it out.
- [18:11]
Justice Allison Riggs
For people, too, my website is rigsforourcourts.com R I G G S F O R O U R C O u r t s.com rigs for our courts. You can search me. I'm on every social media platform. If you search Allison Riggs or Rigs for Our Courts is my campaign name, you can find me. We are going to be sending regular updates. We're going to let people know what's happening, what they can expect. I certainly need people's financial support. This is a war of attrition that my opponent and his allies are waging against me and voters. And I've spent $1.2 million already on legal bills, and I've got a lot of legal bills left ahead of me. But I will not stop fighting. And every dollar helps me not only fight this fight in court, but get this message out so that we understand that we have to win this fight now. Just like little D, Democracy, Democrat, people who cared about democracy won this fight in 22 and in 2020. We have to win this fight now because our democracy cannot survive if voters don't ultimately get to decide who represents them. And so really just stay, stay connected with my campaign. Stay connected with what's happening in the legal fight. And I'm so grateful for you in this platform, lifting up what we're, what we're fighting down here.
- [19:53]
News Host
Well, from one civil rights lawyer to another, as someone who was marching on the streets in Bakersfield with families of either political party who just wanted answers during the early stage of my career, really appreciate your career, everything you've been doing, and thank you for being on this network. We appreciate you. Justice Alison Riggs. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram, itistouch and help US blow past 1 million followers.