North Carolina
Following Griffin case, NC voters face new election rules. Here’s what might change
North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s lawsuit seeking to throw out thousands of ballots from the 2024 election ended when he conceded defeat Wednesday. But the ramifications of the Republican’s lawsuit will have long-lasting and far-reaching effects for voters around the state.
Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals, didn’t succeed in overturning the result of last year’s election for a seat on the state’s highest court, which he lost to Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes. But Griffin did succeed in changing state law along the way, with new rules that will apply in all future elections.
Hundreds of thousands of voters — including 100% of overseas voters as well as many others living inside the state — could be affected.
In large part, the changes are because of court rulings in Griffin’s favor from fellow Republican judges in state courts. Additionally, there’s a new Republican majority on the State Board of Elections, which will have the authority to interpret those court rulings — and to take additional actions based on election integrity claims made by Griffin and other GOP leaders.
The new board is expected to enact sweeping changes based on election integrity claims made by Griffin, Republican President Donald Trump and other party figures.
“Judge Griffin deserves the appreciation of every North Carolinian for highlighting the appalling mismanagement, inaccurate data, and partisan behavior from the prior State Board of Elections,” the North Carolina Republican Party wrote after Griffin conceded defeat.
The narrow race for the high-court seat remained uncertified while Griffin challenged more than 60,000 voters with inconsistent information in voter rolls, such as missing hyphens. He also contested some overseas voters who didn’t show photo identification, even though they weren’t required to at the time. Griffin’s challenges were rejected by state elections officials, so he took them to court.
Griffin won in state court but then lost in federal court. A federal judge said the state court rulings in Griffin’s favor would’ve violated the constitutional rights of the voters being challenged, since Griffin sought to punish those voters for not following voting rules that didn’t exist when the election was held.
Griffin accepted the decision, saying he wouldn’t appeal. Riggs is set to be formally named the winner on Tuesday.
While the federal judge ordered Riggs’ victory to be made official, he didn’t overturn the pro-Griffin rulings from state court. So even though the state Supreme Court’s attempt to apply those new rules retroactively to the 2024 elections was blocked as unconstitutional, those same rules are allowed to go into effect for future elections.
The next elections begin soon: 2025 municipal races kick off in September, and campaigning is already underway for the 2026 midterms.
The new rules
In the Griffin case, the state Supreme Court ruled that overseas voters need to show photo identification to vote. It also ruled that U.S. citizens who have only ever lived overseas, but whose parents are North Carolina voters, should be banned from voting. Riggs recused herself from the case; Griffin did so at the appellate level.
However, the ruling only affected state-level elections, and not federal races. So going forward overseas voters will find themselves in a strange legal situation in which these new rules only apply to certain races on their ballots.
“It really just creates this soup of chaos,” said Joselle Torres of the group Democracy NC, a voting rights group that opposed Griffin’s challenges and is now scrambling to educate voters on the new rules.
The so-called “never-resident” voters, for example, will still be able to vote for North Carolina’s members of the U.S. House and Senate, but not for the state legislature. And if a North Carolina resident who’s voting from overseas doesn’t show ID, their vote for governor would be thrown out but their vote for president would still count.
State elections officials are working to implement the new rules, to create a new online portal for overseas voters to provide proof of ID, to create the new systems that will be needed to make sure no ballots are either wrongfully counted or wrongfully thrown out, and to educate overseas voters on the changes.
“This will require, for the first time, that North Carolina counties maintain two separate voter rolls—one for everyone eligible to vote in all elections, and one for everyone eligible to vote in federal elections only,” elections board spokesman Pat Gannon told WRAL. “The State Board is in the process of updating its website and voting materials to reflect these new instructions from the courts on state law.”
Torres said she’s expecting the new GOP majority on the elections board — which last week switched from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s control to Republican Auditor Dave Boliek following a separate legal battle — won’t just stop at enforcing the rules the state Supreme Court has put in place.
“They might prioritize some quote-unquote ‘election integrity’ initiatives that could make voting with ID, voting overseas, voting by mail, much harder,” Torres said.
The new chairman of the GOP-majority elections board, Francis De Luca, hinted at as much on Wednesday in his introductory speech. He said the board will have “a little bit of a busy time ahead” as he pushes for changes meant to “ensure trust in the election system.”
Republican politicians have long pushed for more restrictive voting rules, whether by passing new laws in the state legislature or by funding lawsuits including Griffin’s. Republicans often say the state’s electoral process needs more safeguarding, despite little evidence of voter fraud.
When the new GOP-majority elections board was sworn in this past week, state GOP chair Jason Simmons wrote that “restoring confidence in the State Board of Elections will take time but we are hopeful in the new direction that began today.”
Purging voters?
One part of Griffin’s post-election challenges — based on people whose identifying information is missing or mismatched in a state database — was also the topic of a separate lawsuit by the state Republican Party thrown out during the election.
State and national Republican leaders sued in August, trying to have more than 225,000 North Carolinians ruled ineligible to vote. That lawsuit was thrown out by the same federal judge who also threw out Griffin’s challenges: Richard Myers, a Trump appointee who serves as the chief judge for the eastern district of North Carolina.
In each case that saw Myers ruling against his fellow Republicans, he wrote that their requests would violate the U.S. Constitution and call into question the legitimacy of elections in North Carolina.
Now that Republicans control the state elections board, though, they could purge voters or enact other similar changes without needing to sue, since the previous Democratic majority on the board no longer exists to block such efforts.
Opponents such as the Democratic Party or private groups and individuals might sue to fight such efforts. One group involved in fighting Griffin’s challenges was the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a Durham-based civil rights group that Riggs led before becoming a judge.
Hilary Harris Klein, the group’s top voting rights lawyer, said in an interview that any effort to purge those potentially hundreds of thousands of voters from the state’s voter rolls — over the missing information both the state GOP and Griffin lawsuits focused on — would be legally suspect, since there’s no evidence any of them are fraudulent voters.
Many of those voters did provide the required information but landed on the list of voters with missing information regardless, due to mistakes by government officials inputting the data.
“A lot of those people on the 225,000 list are lawfully registered, even if you assume [Republicans’] theory of registration is correct,” Klein said. “So the backstop to all of this is that there’s no evidence, not an iota of evidence, that any of those voters on that list are not eligible.”
The previous members of the state elections board also agreed. All of its Democratic and Republican members voted unanimously in early 2024 to reject the same argument that the state Republican Party later based its lawsuit on, as it sought to purge those 225,000 voters. About 60,000 of them voted in 2024, and became the focus of Griffin’s lawsuit.
Griffin never provided any proof in the six months his lawsuit went on, nor did the state Republican Party in its prior lawsuit, that any of those voters were imposters or otherwise committed voter fraud.
“We don’t have any evidence that any of them are fraudulently registered,” Klein said. “And of course, we know that voter fraud in general is just vanishingly rare.”
North Carolina is beginning to plan for floods that have not happened yet.
State officials this year advanced the next phase of the state’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint, incorporating updated modeling that factors in heavier rainfall, future development and sea-level rise — a shift away from relying solely on historic data and FEMA’s regulatory maps.
“We can make decisions and plan for that future, not just the exposure to flooding that we see now,” said Stuart Brown, who manages the Flood Resiliency Blueprint for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
For a state that has endured record-breaking rainfall from Hurricane Helene in the mountains to Tropical Storm Chantal in the Triangle, the move reflects a growing recognition: past standards no longer capture present risk.
Beyond outdated flood lines
Multiple North Carolina studies have found that between 43% and 60% of flood damage occurs outside FEMA’s regulatory flood zones. Those maps shape insurance requirements and local zoning decisions, yet they are largely based on historical rainfall data.
“A lot of the regulatory floodplains really haven’t kept up with what we know is happening,” said Elizabeth Losos, executive in residence at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability.
Climate data show rainfall intensity in the Triangle has increased by about 21% since 1970. Warmer air holds more moisture, fueling heavier downpours that overwhelm drainage systems designed for a different climate.
“Fixing what we know is flooding right now is good,” Losos said. “It’s better than nothing, but it’s definitely not enough.”
Brown said the blueprint incorporates projections for future precipitation and development — a critical factor in one of the fastest-growing states in the country.
“Development can be an issue for flooding in two categories,” Brown said. “One is when that development is occurring in areas that are flood prone. The other is when that development is done in ways that don’t account for the additional stormwater that will be produced.”
Thousands of projects, limited dollars
Unlike states that rely on massive levee systems, North Carolina’s flood risk is scattered across river basins, coastal plains and rapidly developing suburbs. Brown said resilience here will require thousands of localized projects.
“We were asked by the General Assembly to provide specific, actionable projects,” Brown said. “We want to know what specific geography and what specific action is proposed.”
That planning push comes as federal support for flood research and mitigation is shrinking.
The Trump administration has proposed a roughly 30% cut to NOAA’s 2026 budget, targeting climate research and ocean services that provide the rainfall and coastal data states use to model flood risk. At FEMA, the administration has cut staff by more than 6%, reduced funding for local hazard mitigation projects and added new approval layers for grants.
For North Carolina, that means fewer dollars for buyouts, drainage upgrades and flood control projects — and less federal data to guide long-term planning — just as the state is trying to build a more forward-looking flood strategy.
Brown said North Carolina is trying to “leverage the limited dollars that we have in the state with any federal sources that are available” and embed resilience into routine investments in transportation, water treatment and conservation.
“Funding is always going to be an issue,” Brown said.
The policy gap
Researchers have long argued that resilience investments save money. Studies show every $1 spent on mitigation can yield $4 to $13 in avoided losses.
“The problem is that the policies don’t align the people who pay the cost with the people who get the benefit,” Losos said.
A developer may not directly benefit from downstream flood reduction. A town may shoulder upfront infrastructure costs while insurers, neighboring communities or future taxpayers capture part of the savings.
Without policy changes that align costs and benefits, resilience can remain politically and financially difficult.
“In the most severe cases, there are some communities that will have to eventually abandon if they don’t begin to think about how they can adapt to these conditions,” Losos said.
North Carolina now has updated tools to better measure future flood risk. Whether the state can secure stable federal support — and align its own policies with the risks ahead — will determine how effectively communities prepare for the next storm rather than recover from the last one.
North Carolina
North Carolina primary could mean Roy Cooper vs Michael Whatley in pivotal fall Senate race
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s primary will be the official starting gun for one of the country’s most closely watched U.S. Senate campaigns, likely pitting former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper against former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.
Each candidate is the most high-profile contender for their party’s nomination, which should be sealed on Tuesday. Scores of other races also are on the ballot, including for the U.S. House, state legislature and judicial seats.
North Carolina, a traditional battleground where Democrats have been able to hold the governor’s seat even as voters helped send President Donald Trump to the White House, is one of three states kicking off this year’s midterm elections, along with Texas and Arkansas. Tuesday’s slate of primaries comes against the backdrop of the U.S. and Israel attack on Iran.
The war, which began over the weekend, has killed at least six U.S. service members, spiraled into a regional confrontation as Iran retaliated and sent oil and natural gas prices soaring. The president, who campaigned on an isolationist “America First” agenda and went to war without authorization from Congress, faces mounting questions over its rationale and an exit strategy.
North Carolina’s election this year could be crucial for determining which party controls the U.S. Senate, where Republicans currently have the majority. The seat is open because Sen. Thom Tillis decided to retire after clashing with President Donald Trump. Political experts say a typhoon of outside money could make the race the most expensive Senate campaigns in U.S. history, perhaps reaching $1 billion.
Many Democrats see Cooper, who served two terms as governor and has been successful in state politics for decades, as the party’s best shot at victory. Democrats need to pick up four seats to take back control of the Senate, and they view the most likely path as winning in North Carolina, Maine, Alaska and Ohio.
Cooper faces five lesser-known rivals on Tuesday. Other Republicans on the Senate ballot include Navy officer Don Brown and Michele Morrow, who was the party’s nominee for state schools chief in 2024.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, arrives to an early voting site to cast his vote on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Gastonia, N.C. Credit: AP/Erik Verduzco
Cooper formally entered the race weeks after Tillis announced last summer he wouldn’t seek a third term, as did Whatley, who was buoyed by Trump’s backing when the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump declined to enter. The two candidates have been campaigning for months against each other with little focus on intraparty opposition.
Whatley promises to keep pushing Trump’s agenda if elected, one that he says has cut taxes and spending and restored U.S. military might.
“It’s very important for us to have a conservative champion and for President Trump to have an ally in the Senate,” he said while voting early in Gastonia. “We’re going to be fighting for every family and every community in North Carolina.”
Some primary voters say Congress needs Democratic control as a counterweight to Trump and what they consider disastrous policies.
President Donald Trump listens as Michael Whatley speaks to soldiers and their families at Fort Bragg, N.C., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Credit: AP/Matt Rourke
“I think we need to send a message. And I think the more Democrats that show up, and the more independents that show up for this midterm election, and the more seats we can take from the Republicans, the more he might get the message,” said Lisa Frucht, 67, said as she cast a ballot for Cooper at an early voting site north of Raleigh.
Republican voter Gary Grimes, who chose Whatley, said Democratic control of Congress could lead to more impeachment efforts against Trump that ultimately won’t succeed.
“It’ll be a repeat of what they did to Trump in the first term,” said Grimes, 71, “And they can’t see anything except getting Trump, at any cost.”
A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in North Carolina since 2008. Meanwhile, Cooper, 68, hasn’t lost a North Carolina election going back to first running for the state House in the mid-1980s, leading to 16 years as attorney general and eight as governor through 2024.
Whatley, 57, previously worked in President George W. Bush’s administration, for then-North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole and as an energy lobbyist.
Cooper and his allies have centered campaign attacks on Whatley’s allegiance to the president and Trump policies, saying he backs higher tariffs and Medicaid spending reductions and must take blame for slow Hurricane Helene recovery aid.
Voting recently in Raleigh, Cooper said he wants to “make sure that I’m a strong, independent senator who can work with this president when I can, stand up to him when I need to and recognize that people are struggling right now.”
Whatley, Trump and other Republicans have blistered Cooper on criminal justice matters, accusing him of promoting soft-on-crime policies while governor. They’ve repeatedly highlighted last August’s fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train. Trump identified Zarutska’s mother in attendance at last week’s State of the Union address.
Cooper told reporters recently that his career is about “prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars.”
Tuesday’s election also includes primary elections in all but one of North Carolina’s U.S. House districts. They include a five-candidate GOP primary in the northeastern 1st Congressional District, which is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis, who faced no primary opposition.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly created last fall a more right-leaning 1st District to join Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections to retain the House. Davis won in 2024 by less than 2 percentage points.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Drivers in Asheville are paying slightly more at the pump this week, even as prices remain below where they were a year ago. Amid a rapidly escalating war in the Middle East, however, fuel prices are expected to rise even further.
Average gasoline prices in Asheville have risen 2.1 cents per gallon in the last week and are averaging $2.70 per gallon on Monday, March 2, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 259 stations in Asheville. Prices in Asheville are 2.3 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand 10 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, per the GasBuddy report.
Neighboring areas also saw increases, according to new data. Spartanburg is averaging $2.66 per gallon, up 9.3 cents per gallon from last week’s $2.57 per gallon. Greenville is averaging $2.65 per gallon, up 8.9 cents per gallon from last week’s $2.57 per gallon.
US STOCKS SLIP, OIL PRICES LEAP WITH WORRIES THAT WAR IN MIDDLE EAST WILL WORSEN INFLATION
According to GasBuddy, gasoline prices nationwide have risen for four straight weeks.
Across the country, the national average price of gasoline has risen 5.6 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.94 per gallon on Monday. The national average is up 7.8 cents per gallon from a month ago and is 10.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, according to GasBuddy data.
Diesel prices also moved higher. The national average price of diesel increased 5.4 cents compared to a week ago and stands at $3.740 per gallon.
“Looking ahead, markets will now begin reacting to this weekend’s U.S.–Iran attacks, which have elevated geopolitical risk premiums even in the absence of immediate supply disruption,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said via a press release. “In the week ahead, gasoline prices are likely to face heightened upward pressure as seasonal trends continue and markets navigate this evolving geopolitical landscape, with the national average poised to reach the $3-per-gallon mark for the first time this year.”
THE 2026 PRIMARY ELECTION IS ALMOST HERE. HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
In Asheville, GasBuddy price reports showed the cheapest station was priced at $2.47 per gallon. Meanwhile, the most expensive station was priced at $3.09 per gallon, a difference of 62.0 cents per gallon.
GasBuddy also provided a look at gas prices in Asheville on March 2 in the past five years:
- March 2, 2025: $2.80/g (U.S. Average: $3.04/g)
- March 2, 2024: $3.08/g (U.S. Average: $3.34/g)
- March 2, 2023: $3.14/g (U.S. Average: $3.35/g)
- March 2, 2022: $3.56/g (U.S. Average: $3.69/g)
- March 2, 2021: $2.56/g (U.S. Average: $2.74/g)
More than 30K FirstEnergy customers without power in Cuyahoga County
Remembering Jorge Pederson: Minnesota MMA fighter killed in Austin, Texas, shooting
3 Alabama players who helped their draft stock at 2026 NFL combine
Alaska lawmakers push Trump administration to waive $100k visa fee for international teachers
Autopsies show Arizona teens were both shot in the head while camping
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Fraud-plagued Minnesota sues Trump admin for withholding $243M in Medicaid payments
Is Iran expanding attacks to target energy and civilian sites in the Gulf?
Trump claims US stockpiles mean wars can be fought ‘forever’; Kristi Noem testifies before Congress – US politics live
War in the Middle East: Iran’s broad retaliation in the Gulf • FRANCE 24 English
Trump sends official notification to Congress on strikes against Iran
-
World6 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts6 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Denver, CO6 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Louisiana1 week agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Oregon4 days ago2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling
-
Florida3 days agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Technology1 week agoArturia’s FX Collection 6 adds two new effects and a $99 intro version
-
News1 week agoVideo: How Lunar New Year Traditions Take Root Across America