Meredith Brooke Bass, 44, grew up with Jefferson Griffin. A year ahead of him in school, she was best friends with one of his first cousins. Today, they’re still personal Facebook friends. But Bass didn’t vote for Griffin for North Carolina Supreme Court; she opted for Democrat Allison Riggs instead. Now, she is one of thousands of names on a list of voters who Griffin alleges may not have been eligible to do so.
Carolina Public Press reached out to 75 people on the list of voters facing election protests in Granville, Mecklenburg, Vance and Wake counties for “incomplete voter registrations.” Nine responded and agreed to comment.
Some of them said they had no idea their qualifications to vote were being challenged until CPP called.
Why protests are challenging a list of voters
At the end of election night, Griffin was thousands of votes ahead. But during the pre-canvass period, when provisional ballots and later-arriving absentee ballots are counted, Riggs pulled ahead by a few hundred votes.
After a machine recount, Riggs remained ahead by 734 votes. Counties are now beginning a second hand-to-eye recount in a sample of precincts in each county upon Griffin’s request.
In the meantime, Griffin has filed several hundred election protests that question whether more than 60,000 ballots cast in the election were improperly counted.
A few other Republican candidates in close races have filed similar protests against a list of voters in each of their respective counties.
Republican Frank Sossamon is fighting for a state House seat covering Granville and Vance counties that, if he won, would let the North Carolina Republicans keep the veto-proof legislative supermajority they've had for the past several years. But Democrat Bryan Cohn is up by 228 votes after a machine recount, which would cost the GOP that supermajority if the count holds.
Republican Ashlee Bryan Adams is doing the same in her state Senate election against Democrat Terence Everitt. Like Griffin, Adams was originally ahead on election night, but lost her lead after absentee and accepted provisional ballots were added to the count before the county canvass. There is now a 128-vote gap in the Granville and Wake county race.
And lastly, Republican Stacie McGinn has filed similar election protests and requested recounts in her state Senate race covering part of Mecklenburg County. She trails Democrat Mrs. Woodson Bradley by 209 votes after a machine recount.
The election protests span seven categories, but the overwhelming majority of contested ballots belong to one subset — alleged incomplete voter registrations.
Griffin, Sossamon, Adams and McGinn allege that people on each list of voters being challenged have never provided their driver’s license or the last four digits of their Social Security number to county elections officials, deeming them ineligible to vote under state and federal law.
Under state and federal law, registrants who do not have either a driver’s license or Social Security number are assigned a unique voter identification number. Under Section 303 of the federal Help America Vote Act, state elections staff will then use the information they have about the registrant in these cases to determine whether they meet the eligibility requirements to vote.
The subject of these election protests is also the foundation of an ongoing lawsuit in federal district court filed by the North Carolina Republican Party and Republican National Committee against the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Voters respond to being challenged
Regardless of their partisan leanings, voters who talked with CPP about the challenges were not pleased to learn that they were on the list of voters being challenged.
Edwin Bower, 87, first arrived in Raleigh in 1957 to attend NC State University. Since leaving the United Kingdom, he’s been “here, there and everywhere,” but he’s stuck around in Raleigh at the same address for the past 18 or so years.
Bower got a letter in the mail from the Republican National Committee informing him that his vote was under investigation. He tore it up.
“I am a citizen, and I did vote, and I had to show my drivers license,” Bower said.
Bower, a registered unaffiliated voter, has shown up to the polls at least once nearly every year since he registered to vote in North Carolina. He said he’s never been asked for more than a photo ID to confirm his eligibility.
Voter ID was implemented in North Carolina during last year’s municipal elections and this year’s state and federal elections.
“Every country in the world has different (voting) rules and regulations, and people accentuate the problems at their convenience,” he said. “It’s happening in France, it’s happening in Germany, it happened in Ireland, it happened in the UK this year.”
Another Wake County voter, Edward Bielik, appears on Griffin and Adams’ election protest lists. Bielik, a 41 year-old registered Republican, has been registered in the county since 2020.
“There’s no problem with his voter registration. He’s an American citizen,” Kayla Pace, Bielik’s wife, told Carolina Public Press on the phone.
Pace wasn’t aware of the election protests, but deleted Facebook more than a month ago so she hasn’t been following the process. She said when they first moved to Wake Forest in 2018, it was “mind-blowing” to them that they didn’t need to show photo ID to vote, especially when it’s required to buy alcohol and cigarettes or to pick up a prescription, Pace said.
She said she feels like there is still potential in the system for ineligible voters, but that voter ID makes it more difficult. Regardless, she is “shocked” her husband was named on a list of potential ineligible voters.
“I mean this in the most respectful way, but this is BS,” Pace said. “The election has been over a month now."
"Everybody needs to get their (stuff) together,” she said, using an expletive.
Several voters insisted that their information was correct. Vance County registered Democrat Lawrence McKenzie, 62, said he doesn’t have a driver’s license, but that he has everything else.
“I’m a disabled veteran, so I know all my stuff is in line,” he said.
Over in Granville County, Sonya Owens, 47, was “very angry” to hear that her name appeared on the protest list. She hadn’t heard anything about the protest before, but said that when she registered, she brought one of the required documents. She’s been voting in North Carolina as a registered Democrat since 2000, and in Granville since 2018.
“All my stuff is correct,” Owens said. “My license, my Social Security number, everything is right, so my vote better have counted.”
Unaffiliated Mecklenburg voter Sherise Jones, 24, thinks she used her driver’s license in her voter registration application. She hasn’t gotten any notice in the mail about the protests. Jones voted in the past two presidential elections, and feels like they were fair.
“I hope whoever registered me can reconcile this,” she said.
Aldana Allen, 52, is pastor of St. Marks United Methodist Church in Charlotte. He’s also voted in Mecklenburg County elections as a registered Democrat since 2012.
He said he was “bewildered and frustrated” to hear his name on the list.
“Bewildered, although not surprised by such political tactics,” Allen said. “And frustrated that the onus for defending my voter right falls to me. I would not even have known that I was on the list had (Carolina Public Press) not called me. I would have had no idea to even take any possible action.”
Bruce Parrish Jr., 37, doesn’t remember registering to vote in Granville County, but knows he had his driver’s license at the time. He was confused how removing him would help any candidate, and frustrated to hear about the election protests.
“An attack on who’s voting, how they voted, why they voted and what they voted with is just not what a democracy is,” he said. “It’s just not. It’s the opposite of a free and fair election.”
Barbara Rice Lewis, 68, doesn’t have time for “foolishness.”
“That’s a bunch of bull to me because I was registered in high school at 17 and I’ve been voting all my life,” the Mecklenburg registered Democrat said. “I have never missed an election, so they can do whatever they want, or say whatever they want to say, because it’s a lie.”
Every time Lewis votes, she brings her voter registration card, ID and passport, just in case. The election workers always tell her it’s not necessary.
“Every time I go to the polls, my name pops right up instantly. No problems, no issue,” she said. “... They can say whatever they want to say when it comes time for another election, it's going to be a smooth process, just like it has been for me over the last 50 years.”
Meredith Brooke Bass has been following the close race between Griffin and Riggs, but she had no idea she was on the election protest list.
She’s voted in every presidential election since 2004.
“I have a degree in political science; it’s pretty important to me, which is why I was kind of upset that I found out my name was on that list,” she said.
Bass has never had anyone question her eligibility, and thinks that any concerns should have been handled long before now.
“Every election you hear things ... Did dead people vote? Did people vote twice? Did illegal aliens vote? All that stuff,” she said.
“But I've never had anybody contact me, or I never knew I was on the list. So if there is a way for me to assure not only for this election, but future elections, that my vote should count, I’m more than willing to do it.”
As a first step, Bass plans to call her county board of elections to make sure they have all her information. But if that doesn’t work, she said she’ll go right to the source, and contact Griffin personally.
This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
