Veterans Demand Fair Election in North Carolina: Judge Murry Must Recuse, Judge Griffin Must Concede
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2025
PRESS CONTACT: press@commondefense.us
In a free country, voters decide elections. Candidates do not get to see the results and then pick and choose voters to disqualify after the fact.
Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolinians, including hundreds of thousands of veterans and military families, are currently waiting to see if one man, Judge Jefferson Griffin, will be allowed to throw out legally cast ballots and ensure he wins an election that two recounts have already proven he lost. Common Defense, the nation’s largest grassroots organization of U.S. military veterans, believes every legal vote cast in the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election should count and that no North Carolinian should be disenfranchised after legally voting. We also believe the status of military votes should be protected in future elections and are proud to support the “Protect Military Votes” Act, sponsored by several veterans and military family members.
Over four months after the election he lost, Judge Griffin is still seeking to throw out the votes of more than 60,000 North Carolinians who voted early, and the votes of more than 5,000 North Carolinians who voted while living overseas thanks to the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 and North Carolina’s Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act of 2011.
In January, Common Defense member Claude Murray, an Army veteran based in Durham, North Carolina, was quoted in ProPublica criticizing Judge Griffin's actions:
“Judge Griffin is a member of the North Carolina National Guard and the JAG Corps. He also benefited from UOCAVA and utilized absentee by mail voting in 2019 and 2020 while on deployment. It is shameful that he is now seeking to invalidate thousands of votes–including military members and their families, as well as several members of Common Defense–simply because he lost an election. The right to vote is something Americans often take for granted, but as veterans we know how precious it truly is. Judge Griffin knows this too, and is choosing a different path. We call on him to concede this election and return to honorably serving on the NC Court of Appeals.”
The NC Court of Appeals also happens to be where this election currently hangs in the balance, and as such Common Defense is calling on Appeals Court Judge Tom Murry to recuse from this case. Judge Murry recently donated to Judge Griffin’s campaign legal fund and North Carolinians deserve better than to have a judge deciding a case in which he has such a blatant conflict of interest. Murry’s recusal is crucial if voters are to have any confidence in our justice system.
In a free country, voters decide elections. Candidates do not get to see the results and then pick and choose voters to disqualify after the fact. Impartiality is a cornerstone of our judicial system, and judges shouldn’t be paying legal bills for plaintiffs who come before them. Judge Murry must recuse. Judge Griffin must concede.
North Carolina’s state motto is Esse Quam Videri, “To be rather than to seem.” Putting on a judge’s robes can make anyone seem like they will choose justice and do the right thing. By conceding now, Judge Griffin has the chance to do the right thing and start earning back the trust of North Carolinians everywhere.
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Common Defense Civic Engagement is a grassroots, veteran-led organization (501c4) that was founded in 2016. We empower veterans to stand up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence, to organize against the entrenched powers that have rigged our economy, and to champion an equitable and representative democracy, where “liberty and justice” truly is for all. For too long, politicians from both political parties have attempted to use veterans as unwilling political props, and Common Defense serves as a home for veterans to organize and speak for themselves and support the candidates who truly share our values.