CHARLOTTE — Since turning 18, Rani Dasi has voted in nearly every election. She even ran in a couple herself, winning a seat on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board.
But now her eligibility and more than 60,000 others are being challenged by Republican State Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin.
“I think I feel a responsibility to my community members, to my family, to my ancestors, who, some of them literally died for the right to vote,” Dasi said. “I cannot tell you about the amount of time that could be spent on other really important needs across the state of North Carolina.”
Griffin trails Democrat Allison Riggs by 734 votes in the race for North Carolina Supreme Court. After the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected his protest, he filed a writ of prohibition with the state Supreme Court. On Thursday, NCSBE removed the case from state court and into the hands of federal court.
Griffin’s lawsuit targets three sets of voters
The first are voters whose registrations didn’t include their driver’s license or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The second is targeting what he calls “never residents.” Those are people born overseas to North Carolina residents but have never lived in North Carolina. The last focus is on overseas voters who did not provide a photo ID.
Dasi was told there are potential inconsistencies with her registration. But she says the Board of Elections told her no information is missing from her file. Plus she’s been voting for years without issue and had to show her ID at the polls this year.
Same with Jen Baddour, a registered voter since 1992 who could see her vote tossed out.
“Now that my vote is in question, I’m like, how? I don’t understand it,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense and it feels like a slap in the face. Completely unnecessary and unconstitutional.”
A federal judge already ruled in a separate case that voters with missing registration information shouldn’t be purged.
Riggs is calling on Griffin to concede and drop the lawsuit. Griffin says this is about counting every legal vote.