'It's bullshit' Longtime NC voters at risk of Supreme Court ballots wrongly getting tossed

The so-called "never resident" list appears to include some longtime residents, while other voters appear in two different challenge categories–leaving the fate of their ballots unclear.

It didn’t take long to find a Greensboro voter at imminent risk of having their ballot discarded from last year’s Supreme Court election. And for some, the issues can’t be corrected.

Vidyaranya Gargeya is a retired professor who taught at UNC-Greensboro for 30 years who, according to the school, has visited every college in the state. He’s paid property taxes at the same suburban Guilford County home he’s owned since 2003, according to public records. And voting records show he voted in-person on Election Day eight times without issue, and has voted in every midterm and presidential general election since 2006. He appears to have cast an overseas mail-in ballot for the 2024 election.

But a protest filed by Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin labeled Gargeya as a “never resident.” On Friday, the state Supreme Court directed the State Board of Elections to promptly remove 260 never-resident ballots without any opportunity for remedy or discussion, including Gargeya’s.

A 4-2 decision written by Republican Supreme Court Justice Trey Allen and joined by justices Paul Newby, Tamara Barriner and Phil Berger Jr., labeled these people as “overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina and have never expressed an intent to live in North Carolina.” Those ballots should be immediately removed from the count, they ruled.

On Saturday, in partnership with The Assembly, this reporter visited 30 households across Greensboro to try to reach impacted voters. When approached at their front door, parents, siblings, and spouses answered. Many were confused as to why their loved one’s vote was on Griffin’s protest list. That confusion quickly shifted to frustration, curiosity and a sense of helplessness.