A coalition of voting rights activists denounced efforts to disenfranchise North Carolina voters in state elections, rallying at the Capitol grounds on Wednesday in the shadow of the state Supreme Court.
Members of the “Court the Vote” coalition — made up of voting rights and progressive groups in the state such as Progress NC Action, the Justice Project, and Flip NC — gathered in Raleigh before a crowd of around 40 to raise awareness of voter suppression efforts, with a focus on the state courts.
Speakers trained much of their condemnation on Judge Jefferson Griffin’s efforts earlier this year to overturn the results of the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election, as well as on Chief Justice Paul Newby and Associate Justice Phil Berger Jr., who they identified as responsible for partisan maneuvering on the court.
“The court behind us, the Newby-Berger majority on the state Supreme Court, has repeatedly demonstrated that they are willing to put politics before people, whether it’s attacking voting rights, overturning fair maps, or blocking duly elected justices,” said Julian Wolff, program director for the Justice Project — a national nonprofit that works to promote impartial state courts and secure democracy. “We remember what this court did to disenfranchise voters, especially veteran and active duty military voters.”
Griffin sought to invalidate votes cast by military and overseas voters who did not provide photo ID with their absentee ballots, which he argued was a violation of state election law. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in his favor on the issue, but a federal court intervened to prevent ballots from being discarded.
Tysen Moy, a UNC School of Law student and Army veteran, said that if he were still overseas, his ballot could have been tossed out. “I didn’t bring my driver’s license with me to Iraq, and you’re not allowed by law to make a scan of a military ID. What would I have done?” he asked.
Also speaking at the rally was Cat Lawson, voter protection director for the North Carolina Democratic Party. She said while she wished voter rights were not a partisan issue, the reality is that “we only have one party that’s actually committed to doing the work to protect voting rights in North Carolina.”
“Voter suppression looks like having your mom’s absentee ballot get rejected because a check mark was deemed unreadable by a newly Republican-controlled county board of elections,” Lawson said. “It looks like your elderly neighbor being confused about their polling site, because Republican county commissions are deciding that public schools and other public spaces can’t be used for polling sites anymore.”
Demonstrators hold up signs at the “Court the Vote” rally on the North Carolina Capitol grounds on July 23, 2025. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
Among the rally observers were veterans, lawyers, and a broad spectrum of activists. Dave Ramirez, a friend of Moy’s and a U.S. Army Airborne veteran who attended the demonstration, called the Griffin challenge “pathetic” and said he hopes a lot of people start paying more attention to politics.
“I want to see bigger turnouts and stuff,” he said. “I think there are enough angry people out there — you know, not so much angry, but just not happy with the current political situation — I just hopefully want to see more people out.”
Denise Sturdy, a longtime corporate attorney who said she “worked for the Republicans my entire career,” warned that if the General Assembly succeeds in passing an overhaul of the state elections board that would replace a large portion of staff positions with political appointees, “your votes are going to be suggestions.”
“I am so happy the [Supreme Court challenge] was resolved the way it was, because had it fallen the other way, that would have been nationwide; that would have happened all across the United States,” she said.
Closing out the rally speeches was Melissa Kromm, executive director of North Carolina for the People Action, who stressed that “our rights are under attack,” most prominently the right to vote. She said her child was among those whose ballot was challenged.
“Here in North Carolina, we have judges who embrace partisanship and put party loyalty and ideology above the law and above the constitution,” Kromm said. “We deserve courts that are fair, independent, and accountable to the people, not to partisan operatives or corporate wealthy donors.”
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