‘This is a National Outrage:’ North Carolinians Protest GOP Election Challenges

It was still dark when Kate Compton Barr stepped up to a makeshift podium early Tuesday morning, situated on the south side of the North Carolina State Capitol lawn in Raleigh, right across from the state Supreme Court. 

“Good morning!” Barr exclaimed. “I’m sure at this hour and at this temperature we’d all prefer to be at home in our cozy beds. But sometimes we have to risk a little frostbite for democracy.” Standing behind the podium adorned with a pink sign that read “60,000 voters won’t be silenced,” Barr gave a summary of the contentious, confusing political situation in the Tar Heel state that’s currently playing out in both state and federal court. 

Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs narrowly won her reelection in November. After two recounts, the GOP challenger, Jefferson Griffin, refused to concede the election and filed challenges alleging that the state board of elections processed over 225,000 voter registration applications prior to December 2023 without collecting the necessary identification information, and failed to take swift action to identify and remove unqualified voters from the state’s voter rolls. Griffin also challenged the eligibility of ballots cast by overseas voters who self-identified as U.S. citizens living outside the country. The challenges call into question the eligibility of more than 60,000 ballots — a challenge that could ultimately reverse the election results. 

Due to the lawsuits, the state Supreme Court halted certification of the election as it considered Griffin’s case Jan. 7. Simultaneously, Griffin’s election challenge is also before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear oral argument three days after the state Supreme Court is set to give its final briefing. 

It’s a messy, confusing legal situation, but one whose outcome is soberingly simple: the fate of over 60,000 ballots — and, as a result, the outcome of the state Supreme Court election — hangs in the balance of the North Carolina Supreme Court. 

For Barr, and many other North Carolina residents, the situation is nothing short of outrageous: a GOP-controlled court could potentially overturn the results of its own election by disenfranchising tens of thousands of registered voters. And so Barr — who ran a losing campaign in November for a state Senate seat — decided to do something to boost awareness of the controversy unfolding in the courts. 

“I think especially in legal battles, where everything is written in Latin and it’s so difficult to understand exactly what’s going on and exactly what the stakes are, we felt compelled to do something to give the voters on the list a chance to be heard,” she told Democracy Docket. “Because the risk here is that their votes won’t be heard, that their voices will be silenced.”

And so, starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning with plans to go until well after sunset, Barr and a coalition of activists, community leaders and voters took turns standing in front of the state Supreme Court to read the names of all 60,000 voters whose ballots could be tossed out because of Griffin’s challenge.

“We really want people to understand the scope of what’s happening,” Barr said. “And sometimes that means putting your body in the outside freezing cold weather for 17 hours to make sure that the people who are being unlawfully challenged have a chance to have their moment to say, ‘This is wrong.’”

Prior to the demonstration, Barr — who, after her election loss, launched a grassroots organization to advocate for a fair and equitable electoral system — collected statements from dozens of voters whose ballots are being challenged. Barr said that the statements she collected run “the whole gamut” of political backgrounds. “It’s truly a nonpartisan issue, frankly,” she added.

The statements collected include one from Don Kight, who’s been registered to vote in Buncombe County, NC since 1999. Kight was in Mexico during the 2024 election and completed all the necessary steps to cast an absentee ballot from abroad. Kight wrote that he even received a confirmation from the Buncombe County Board of Elections that his ballot was received, only to later learn that it’s now being challenged. “I am outraged that my ballot is being challenged,” he wrote.

“I registered to vote in 2020. I voted in-person in 2020 and 2024,” James Brookover, of Harnett County, wrote. “Why would my vote be challenged?” As a 20 year military veteran, he said he was outraged the rights he fought to protect were being challenged now.  

Another statement came from Riley Oates, a college student who wrote that they “did everything right” to have their voter registration up to date. “Never could I imagine that a small minded man in politics would challenge my vote on the grounds of being a sore loser,” Oates said. “Let’s do better North Carolina.

“This is a national tragedy, because these are legal votes from legal voters, and they’re being challenged because someone doesn’t like the results of the election,” Barr said. “And that’s not how democracy works. That’s not how America works.”