Supreme Court’s Riggs-Griffin ruling is an assault on democracy

It’s been almost six months since state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin narrowly lost last year’s election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. Two recounts confirmed the result.

Unfortunately, Griffin’s effort to overturn the election based on the farfetched theory that thousands of registered voters should have their ballots thrown out continues.

And last week, four Republican state Supreme Court justices endorsed the scheme — ruling that the votes of numerous military and overseas voters will be trashed unless they can somehow provide a photo ID in short order. This despite the fact that state rules required no such thing at the time of the election.

It’s a remarkably dangerous ruling that Republican Justice Richard Dietz blasted as an invitation to losing candidates of all kinds to engage in post-election meddling.

The bottom line: If there’s any fairness left in the world, Justice Riggs will prevail in her appeal to the federal courts. But even if she does, the damage done to the legitimacy of our judiciary and our democracy by the Supreme Court ruling will be immense and long-lasting.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.