Military family in Japan caught in the middle of Griffin's ballot challenge in race against Riggs
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the Riggs-Griffin case goes back and forth through court, Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs scored a partial victory as she was granted a stay on the ballot cure process that would have impacted thousands of military and overseas voters being challenged by Republican Jefferson Griffin.
The stay will allow a federal court to hear Riggs' argument that all votes should be counted in the race.
But in the middle of the back-and-forth challenges, military families have been left confused wondering if their votes will count.
Gabriela Adler-Espino is still getting used to life far from home with her Navy husband stationed in Okinawa.
"It was rough at first because he was gone for six months as soon as we got here. So we didn't get to explore or anything. But now he's back. So it's great," she says.
After moving there last summer, when the November election rolled around, she had to vote from overseas.
She says it's a process she never had an issue with until last year.
"It was super easy, we would mail in our ballot, never had a problem before, it was never an issue," she says.
But she says, given the current political climate, she was worried about her vote counting, so she screenshotted the online portal just to make sure.
"I don't know why, but I just had that feeling that something with my vote was going to go wrong," she says.
It wasn't until a military family friend back in North Carolina told her her vote was being challenged by the Griffin campaign.
"If it was not because of her, I would not have even been aware of what was happening," she says.
She still doesn't know what they want her to do to ensure her vote counts. When she registered to vote in New Bern before being stationed in Japan, she showed her ID, social security number and passport.
"I literally followed the instructions to a T on the portal that they provided me to vote and now they're saying the way I voted was wrong or I didn't show identification, still to this day I don't know what he's challenging," she says.
But she says military families take it personally.
"We're not here as much as we love it, we're here because my husband has a mission to do here," she says.
Now left to fight for her vote to count from across the globe.
"It's very important for people to be paying attention to this kind of thing so they can stand up for themselves, because this is a constitutional right that you have that he's trying to violate," she says.
SEE ALSO | Federal judge blocks ballot review in NC Supreme Court race
