🚨NEW: The NC Supreme Court's GOP majority will retroactively nullify 2,000 to 7,000 ballots from military and overseas

[In It to Win It]

https://bsky.app/profile/mjsdc.bsky.social/post/3lmkyjlqswk2b

Mark Joseph Stern
‪@mjsdc.bsky.social‬

🚨NEW: The NC Supreme Court's GOP majority will retroactively nullify 2,000 to 7,000 ballots from military and overseas voters unless they quickly prove their identity—but only those who voted in a few Democratic counties.

Could overturn Justice Riggs' victory.
https://appellate.nccourts.org/orders.php?t=P&court=1&id=449428&pdf=1&a=0&docket=1&dev=1

Earls dissents:

"It is no small thing to overturn the results of an election in a democracy by throwing out ballots that were legally cast ... Some would call it stealing the election, others might call it a bloodless coup, but by whatever name, no amount of smoke and mirrors makes it legitimate."

Equally notable: Justice Dietz, a Republican, also dissents, decrying the majority's butchering of the law and "post hoc judicial tampering in election results." So the vote is 4–2.

Dietz also dissented from the notorious RFK Jr. ballot decision last fall.
https://appellate.nccourts.org/orders.php?t=P&court=1&id=449428&pdf=1&a=0&docket=1&dev=1

What now?

Today's decision is EXTREMELY vulnerable to reversal at the 4th Circuit. The majority orders a "remedy" that flagrantly violates the equal protection clause—forcing those who voted in just a handful of counties to prove their identity ... or have their ballots nullified.

Many precedents—including Bush v. Gore—say that applying different standards to voters in different parts of the state, at the risk of disenfranchisement, violates equal protection. That is EXACTLY what the North Carolina Supreme Court's Republican majority just did. This order is unconstitutional.

The NC Elections Board, Justice Riggs, and perhaps some voters will now seek a federal court order blocking the NC Supreme Court's decision.

If they don't get it in district court, I remain cautiously optimistic that the 4th Circuit will provide it, and SCOTUS will let that decision stand.

[SheltieLover]

1. I hope expats & military are aware of this!

[Karma13612]

2. There is another thread diary here

That doesn’t seem to say that.

I read that the ruling is going to give voters like a month to cure their votes. Only about 200 voters are not having their votes counted because, although they are NC residents, they have never actually LIVED in the state. Not sure how that works. They are abroad somewhere.

I’m confused.

[rzemanfl]

3. Bush won Florida in 2000 because Gore and his representatives were

conned by the Republicans into not challenging military ballots.

[milestogo]

4. I wish all Republicans would move to Hungary or North Korea.