Raleigh, NC – Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (“RITE”), a non-profit organization that supports litigation to protect election security and integrity, issued the following statement in response to the Court of Appeals of North Carolina’s ruling in Griffin v. North Carolina State Board of Elections that ballots of overseas voters who have never resided in North Carolina are to be excluded from the final count for the contested race for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
“RITE is gratified by today’s ruling, which vindicates RITE’s lawsuit brought before the November election that people who have never resided in the state are not constitutionally eligible to vote in North Carolina elections,” said RITE Spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “In October, RITE initiated litigation challenging a state statute permitting overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina to vote for all offices in the state, including Supreme Court races. In line with RITE’s arguments, the court today correctly held that North Carolina’s constitution clearly – and unsurprisingly – conditions eligibility to vote on being an actual resident of the state. North Carolina’s elections should never be decided by anyone other than North Carolinians. The courts should have resolved this issue when RITE gave them the opportunity before the election, but a right decision late is better than none at all.”
RITE also filed amicus briefs in this litigation when it was removed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and while it was pending, at an earlier stage of the case, before the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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