'Inherently disenfranchising': Over 60,000 votes contested in N.C. Supreme Court race

On Nov. 19, 2024, over 1,500 Orange County voters were included in Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin's protest against the N.C. Supreme Court election. Over 60,000 votes in North Carolina were contested in total. 

The lawsuit’s main allegations are that voters did not include their driver’s license numbers or social security numbers in their voter registration. 

Rani Dasi, a member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board, was included in the list of contested voters. She said she was informed by a friend that someone had seen her name in the list.

“I was stunned,” Dasi said. “My first response was ‘Do you think your friend has been hacked?’ because I've been voting since the early '90s, and I’m an elected official in North Carolina which means that my registration and my legitimacy to be involved in the process has been vetted multiple times.”

Dasi said prior to the election she confirmed with an N.C. State Board of Elections representative that there was no information missing from her voter registration. Her advice to voters who are on the list is to contact the board and confirm that they have all the information necessary for a complete and valid voter registration. 

Both Joseph Telegen, a UNC teaching assistant professor, and UNC senior Rayland Anderson said they were informed they were on the list of contested voters when The Daily Tar Heel reached out to them for comment. 

Anderson said he was surprised to learn he was on the list because he has been voting in Orange County since 2023 with no issues.  

When he was informed of the election protest, he said he contacted both the NCSBE and Democratic Incumbent Justice Allison Riggs’s team. 

“I provided everything that was asked of me by the official, but apparently there must have been some error in data reporting or something,” he said. “I can’t attest to why my driver’s license number was not on record, but that just goes to show how you can do everything correctly and still your vote can be contested.”

In the weeks after the election, the N.C. GOP mailed postcards to voters explaining that their votes may be affected by the protest and contained a QR code for voters to scan to view the filing. 

Telegen and Anderson both said they did not remember receiving any mail from the NC Republican Party, while Dasi said she had heard reports that they were being mailed out before she received it. 

If she had not known of the postcard before it was mailed to her, Dasi said she probably would have discarded it because it was confusing, especially as a long-time voter and elected official.

Anderson said he was disappointed that a candidate for the N.C. Supreme Court would file a disingenuous and unethical lawsuit. 

“It’s not claiming that these are fraudulent votes, but rather votes that are invalid on circumstantial reasons — it’s inherently disenfranchising,” he said. 

Raising concerns over voter registration prior to the election would have allowed the board more resources to strengthen their processes and avoided issues with certifying the election, Dasi said. She said if the purpose of the protest was to protect voting, then it should have been handled in a collaborative way that did not feel like it was taking away people’s voices.

Telegen said he hopes the election protest does not work, and that he will take steps to protect his voting status so this does not happen again. 

“I would still vote,” he said. “I would still try. Democracy depends on faith that your vote is being counted. But I would have some doubts that I didn’t have before, just seeing how easy it is to do this kind of thing and never find out about it.”

Dasi said having conversations about election protests can contribute to uncertainty for voters about whether they have a right to vote, but it also contributes to the community understanding their voting rights.

“I would rather us be having more conversations about how we can enable people to vote in a way that protects the democratic process — in a way that ensures that folks who are voting meet the criteria,” she said. “I think North Carolina has done that well with its current system.”

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