Jefferson Griffin (R) surrendered in his six-month-long battle to steal a North Carolina Supreme Court election from Allison Riggs (D) on Wednesday, the same day that North Carolina Republicans’ other ratfuckery — trying to strip power from the state’s elected Democrats to seize control of election administration in the state — became official.

As my colleague Khaya Himmelman has been reporting, continuously, for months, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a piece of legislation in December 2024, just before it lost its supermajority. The legislation was a power grab disguised as a hurricane relief bill.

The bill contained a provision that gave the then-newly elected Republican state auditor Dave Boliek authority over the state’s five-member election board. The responsibility previously was held by the governor’s office. After the 2024 election, when Democrats held onto the governor’s mansion and the attorney general’s office, North Carolina Republicans moved to strip some power from the newly elected Democrats. No other state auditor in the nation holds power over the state election board.

The bill passed the state legislature, the-then Gov. Roy Cooper (D) vetoed it, the North Carolina House voted to override the veto in the waning days of the supermajority and the bill became law. Both Cooper and now-Gov. Josh Stein (D), the then-governor elect who previously served as the state’s attorney general, filed a lawsuit against the GOP-controlled state legislature’s leadership.