My stunning revelation

I have just learned that my November ballot is among the 60,000 that Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin is challenging in order to unseat incumbent Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs.

Riggs remains 734 votes ahead of Griffin after two recounts, with the issue now before a federal judge. Griffin argues that the absence of either a Social Security or driver license number on one’s voter registration, as required by the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA), should render these 60,000 ballots invalid.

I would simply laugh if the frivolity, chaos and expense of this challenge were not so serious. Griffin’s whining is hardly “helping America vote.”

I am registered unaffiliated and have voted in all 33 elections — primary, general, municipal — since moving to Rowan County 20 years ago. I even help supervise Election Day voting! I also hail from a political family. My dad was Congressman Bill Miller who ran for vice president with Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1964, and I believe unconditionally in the integrity of our elections.

While my registration does not contain either of those two forms of identification, HAVA still considers such a registration valid if a voter presents a proper ID when first voting. This I did, fulfilling the HAVA requirement for all elections going forward.

I find this challenge of my ballot, and presumably all the others, deeply insulting and have a singular message for Judge Griffin: give it up, concede. This challenge is beneath the dignity of the office you hold. It makes a mockery of our election system by displaying a transparent and unnecessary power grab. You still retain your Appeals Court seat! Our Supreme Court still retains a 5-2 Republican majority! Let us put this divisive issue behind us and get on with addressing the critical issues of our time.

— Mary Miller James
Salisbury