NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs on Protecting Voting Rights and Election Integrity

Attacks on Democracy

• ⚠️ Justice Allison Riggs highlights threats to democracy stemming from gerrymandering and election denialism.
• ⚖️ She emphasizes the importance of speaking out against these real threats, noting near misses with constitutional crises.
• 🗳️ Riggs shares her personal experience of a six-month legal battle over her own election, which involved challenges to 68,000 votes.

The Dangers of Mid-Decade Redistricting

• 🗺️ Riggs, a former voting rights attorney, explains that politicians should not pick their voters.
• ⏰ Mid-decade redistricting is concerning because it disrupts voter expectations and predictability regarding representation.
• 🏘️ Gerrymandering can lead to confusing district lines, causing voters to question who their representative is.

Election Integrity and Voter Confusion

• ❓ Riggs recounts the confusion of thousands of voters who questioned why their votes in certain races were accepted while others were challenged after election day.
• 🏛️ She stresses that a well-functioning democracy requires an orderly, rules-based system where election outcomes are accepted.
• 💰 The reliance on extensive litigation and fundraising to decide election outcomes is not indicative of a healthy democracy.

Selective Challenges and Voter Rights

• 🎯 Riggs points out that challenges to election results are often a selective targeting of specific races by disgruntled partisans.
• ✈️ She details how military and overseas voters in specific counties faced challenges, questioning the fairness and consistency of the process.
• 🎖️ The litigation disproportionately affected service members and their families, who deserve clarity and respect for their votes.

Accurate Voter Rolls and Gamesmanship

• 📋 Riggs discusses the necessity of accurate voter registration rolls while ensuring no eligible voters are removed due to administrative errors.
• 👨‍ military Riggs shares an example of her father, a retired military officer, being challenged for voter registration due to not having a driver's license number on his military ID.
• 🚫 She notes that despite challenges, no ineligible voters were identified, indicating that such litigation is often gamesmanship rather than a pursuit of genuine election integrity.