Victory for North Carolina Voters: All Challenged Ballots in Contested Supreme Court Race Must be Counted

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Raleigh, NC — Yesterday, military and overseas voters won a key victory in the ongoing legal battle over the race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. The court ruled that the election was conducted freely and fairly — ordering that the thousands of ballots challenged by candidate Jefferson Griffin should be counted. Judge Griffin’s challenges sought to throw out ballots by overseas and military voters who followed every instruction given to them.

This decision follows a lengthy legal battle stemming from Griffin’s loss to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs in the November election, a loss that was affirmed by a recount. This is a significant victory for democracy that allows thousands of voters to make their voices heard.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed briefs on behalf of Secure Families Initiative (SFI) at every step of the way in this case, working to ensure that military and overseas voters could have their ballots counted.

"Every North Carolinian — every American — should have confidence that when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted and their voice will be heard. This is as true for a military voter living overseas as it is for a lifelong resident of Raleigh,” said Danielle Lang, senior director for voting rights at Campaign Legal Center. “This decision affirms that truth, and it affirms that one person cannot overthrow an election by changing the rules after the fact just because they don’t like the results."

"The fight against voter disenfranchisement has never come easily throughout American history, and this case was no exception,” said Sarah Streyder, executive director of Secure Families Initiative. “We welcome today’s ruling as it re-affirms the right for military and overseas voters to have our voices heard in the elections that directly impact our lives."

The freedom to vote is essential to our democracy. We the people decide the outcome of elections with our votes, and any attempt by a bad actor who doesn’t like the results to change the rules after the votes have already been counted undermines the integrity of our elections. That cannot be allowed to happen.

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The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center advances democracy through law. We safeguard the freedom to vote, defend voters’ right to know who is spending money to influence elections, and work to ensure public trust in our elected officials.

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Issues
Voting and Elections

Safeguarding D.C. Voters’ Adoption of Ranked Choice Voting and Semi-Open Primaries (Wilson et al. v. District of Columbia Board of Elections and Rice et al.)

At a Glance

In the November 2024 election, District of Columbia voters overwhelmingly passed Initiative 83, a ballot initiative to institute ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries in Washington, D.C. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is representing proponents of Initiative 83 and defending against partisan efforts to invalidate the initiative.   

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Active
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Issues
Voting and Elections
About This Case/Action

In June of 2023, District of Columbia voters proposed an initiative to introduce ranked choice voting in all D.C. elections and to allow independent voters not registered with any political party to vote in D.C. primary elections, which they were previously not able to do. 

Proponents of Initiative 83 sought to implement these pro-voter reforms through a citizen-led ballot initiative in order to put the power to decide whether these reforms would advance democracy directly in the hands of the people of D.C.

D.C. voters overwhelmingly voted for Initiative 83 in the November 2024 election: 73% voted to approve the initiative with large majorities of support in every ward in the District. Now, CLC is stepping in to defend the voices of those D.C. voters who have worked to propose and successfully adopt Initiative 83’s democratic reforms through the ballot initiative process.

Initiative 83 ends the disenfranchisement in the District of Columbia’s primary elections of over 75,000 independent D.C. voters. Research demonstrates that primaries open to independent voters promote greater voter participation; have higher voter turnout rates; result in more representative and accountable officeholders; and eliminate barriers to voting for many voters.

Initiative 83 also introduces ranked choice voting, which will allow voters to rank up to five candidates according to their preferences in each District election (other than for political party offices).  

In a ranked choice election, a candidate with a majority (50%+) of first-choice rankings wins. But if no candidate wins such a majority, then an “instant runoff” occurs: The candidate who received the fewest first-choice rankings is eliminated, and voters who ranked the now-eliminated candidate first have their ballots added to the totals of their next-choice candidate. This process repeats until one candidate receives a majority of the votes and is declared the winner.  

Research shows that ranked choice voting has several beneficial effects for democracy, including requiring candidates to represent a majority of voters; discouraging negative campaign tactics, which may in turn, decrease political polarization; ensuring fair representation for underrepresented groups; and allowing voters to more fully express their political preferences. Experience also proves that voters who use ranked choice voting understand it, are satisfied with it, and have confidence in its results.

In August of 2023, the D.C. Democratic Party, the Chair of the Party, and an individual voter filed a lawsuit alleging that Initiative 83 was unlawful. Although the case was initially dismissed for being untimely, the D.C. Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision and sent the case back down to the trial court for further proceedings on the merits of the case.  

To defend Initiative 83’s pro-voter policies, CLC is representing Lisa D. T. Rice, a D.C. independent voter who proposed Initiative 83, and Grow Democracy D.C., a nonpartisan nonprofit advocating for the implementation and funding of Initiative 83 by the D.C. Council. CLC has filed a motion to intervene, which was granted, and a motion to dismiss the underlying complaint. 

Initiative 83 meets all of the requirements for a citizen-led ballot initiative, and its pro-democracy reforms are legal under both D.C. and federal law.  

Campaign Legal Center’s representation of Lisa Rice and Grow Democracy D.C. in this lawsuit aims to safeguard voters’ ability to create meaningful pro-democracy change in Washington, D.C. and uphold Initiative 83. 

We are asking the Superior Court to safeguard voters’ ability to create meaningful pro-democracy change in Washington, D.C. and uphold Initiative 83.  

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