'Disenfranchised Disco' participates pose for group photo Friday night. (Photo credit: Jessica F. Simmons)
Because of Republican Jefferson Griffin’s controversial challenge of 65,000 voters, North Carolina has the last uncertified race in America.
The dance floor may not be a traditional battleground for voting rights, but at “Disenfranchised Disco” on Friday—an evening of music, movement, and mobilization inside Saxapahaw’s Haw River Ballroom—a few hundred North Carolinians made it clear their votes won’t be erased without a fight.
The event comes as the state’s Supreme Court race remains contested months after the election. Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, who lost the race to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes, has refused to accept the results, even after two recounts and disapproval from fellow Republicans.
The fight to count every vote
Instead, Griffin has sought to invalidate more than 65,000 legal ballots, arguing—without evidence—that they were illegally counted by election officials because of a lack of information on registration databases. The move has left tens of thousands of North Carolinians in limbo, their right to vote now subject to litigation rather than law.
READ MORE: ‘I feel powerless’: The NC Supreme Court race could hinge on whether thousands of likely legal ballots are thrown out
For Heather LaGarde, who owns the ballroom and helped organize “Disenfranchised Disco” with the North Carolina Democratic Party, the stakes are deeply personal. She and her daughter, Hadden, are among those whose voter registrations have been challenged.
“I found out because literally in one day about 60 people texted, emailed, or called me to say, ‘You know you’re on this list?’” Heather said. “And we were really shocked.”
Heather, who has voted in North Carolina since 2004, cast her ballot during early voting and presented identification, as required. Yet her name still appeared among the tens of thousands flagged for review. When she contacted election officials, they assured her there was no issue with her registration.
But the revelation that her daughter, who also voted early in order to volunteer on Election Day, was targeted by Griffin and Republicans, struck a different chord.
“It makes me very, very upset,” she said. “To find out that my daughter is on it—I have to say, I have the mama rage.”
Hadden, too, felt that anger, but she also felt something deeper: disbelief.
“I was tempted to, you know, qualify why I’m so upset that my vote is being challenged,” she said onstage to the crowd. “But really, I’m an American. I’m over 18, and I’m a resident of North Carolina—my vote should count. That should be enough.”
She paused, then added:
“This just sets a terrible precedent for our country. It’s not a country that I want to be living in.”
Hadden wasn’t the only one sounding the alarm.
Anderson Clayton, chair of the NCDP, took the stage to rally voters, emphasizing the urgency of protecting the ballot, and the people’s voice.
Representatives from The Hometown Holler, a progressive media outlet amplifying rural voices; Common Cause NC, a nonpartisan watchdog group advocating for fair elections; and Down Home NC, a grassroots organization focused on rural organizing, spoke about how unfair election challenges disproportionately affect working-class and marginalized communities, and undermine their door-to-door canvassing efforts.
Making disenfranchisement feel real
As one of more than 65,000 affected voters, Heather wanted the event to be more than just a protest. It needed to be a visceral experience—one that made people feel the frustration of being disenfranchised.
To do that, organizers created a vote-to-win contest, where attendees entered voting booths to cast ballots for prizes—drink tickets, annual passes to the ballroom, song selections for the night—before heading to the dance floor.
But there was a catch.
Guests were split into two groups: those flagged as “disenfranchised” received white and blue star wristbands, while everyone else was handed plain blue ones. When it came time for the drawing, only the ballots from the disenfranchised group were counted. The rest—hundreds of them—were dumped onto the stage floor and on a few bystanders, discarded without a second glance.
For a moment, the room fell silent.
That feeling—of time wasted, of voices ignored—was exactly the point.
“Many of us in this room don’t know what it feels like to have our votes go uncounted; for us to take part in a process, only to be told it doesn’t matter,” CJ Suitt, a poet, musician, and the ballroom’s MC for the night, said to the crowd. “Democracy takes us in, but not this time. That feeling some of you might have right now—like, ‘I didn’t get my song,’ or ‘I really wanted that annual pass’—that’s the same feeling many voters across the state are experiencing right now. It doesn’t feel good. And that’s why we’ve got to get active and make sure every vote is counted.”
While some guests walked away with prizes, others left with a far more unsettling takeaway: democracy—a game we designed and thought was fair, as Suitt put it—is not a guarantee when it falls into the wrong hands.
‘We shouldn’t still be fighting 2024’s election battles’
Gabriele Falsetti, wearing a white and blue star wristband at the event, never questioned whether his vote would count in an election. Nine years ago, he immigrated from Italy to Raleigh, eager to take part in American democracy. Because becoming a citizen wasn’t just a milestone—it was a commitment. And voting was part of that.
But weeks after the election, he stumbled across the list of challenged voters online after reading the news. His name was on it, and he was angry.
“When you feel like your rights are being taken away from you and there’s no way that you can defend yourself—I was kind of losing my control,” Falsetti said. “Voting has been very important for me and for my family always. And I purposely wanted to become a citizen so that I could vote.”
Falsetti’s experience mirrored that of Heather, Hadden, and thousands of other North Carolinians caught in political limbo. It’s also why Justice Allison Riggs said she is continuing to fight.
The certification of her Supreme Court race is still in limbo months after the election. Last month, a state judge rejected Griffin’s effort to throw out the ballots. The case is now before the NC Court of Appeals and is expected to reach the state’s highest court, where at least three Republican justices have signaled a willingness to rule in Griffin’s favor.
READ MORE: Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to throw out 65,000 votes finally gets a court hearing on the merits
“The voters spoke,” Riggs said. “We shouldn’t still be fighting 2024 election battles. This is not normal. And it’s not a question of who won. It’s a question of whether politicians will be allowed to undo the will of the people.”
Griffin’s refusal to accept the outcome reflects a larger pattern of Republican attempts to challenge the legitimacy of the election results—a trend that has been seen in other races and has sparked controversy statewide.
“It is so important that we create a sense of community with people who have shared values and shared goals,” Riggs said, referring to the disco. “And I’m really honored to be able to connect with people who are maybe stepping out of their comfort zone because my whole job is to stand up for the constitution and stand up for these folks’ constitutional rights and every North Carolinians constitutional rights. So it’s my honor to be in community with them.”
RELATED: OPINION: A child can figure out how to lose gracefully, so why can’t Jefferson Griffin?
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