University of North Carolina-Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University students have never had an early voting site in a nonpresidential election year.
They’ve been fighting for that to change. During the primary, they failed to convince county election board members to add early voting sites on NC A&T and UNCG’s campuses. A lawsuit over the exclusion also fell short.
Since then, a group of students have regularly attended meetings and attempted to get a meeting with board Republicans in the hopes of a better outcome in the general election.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ Daily, Weekend and Election 2026 newsletters.]
Tuesday afternoon, county election board members dashed those hopes. While all board members agreed to host 17 early voting sites, two more than Guilford County used in the 2022 midterm election, the extra sites were not on the NC A&T or UNCG campuses.
Four of the five board members settled on one additional site in rural mostly Republican Stokesdale and the other at Union Square, a collaborative educational building in downtown Greensboro used by healthcare students at NC A&T, UNCG and Guilford Technical Community College.
Union Square is about a half-hour walk from NC A&T and UNCG, a similar distance students had to travel during the primary election to the nearest polling site.
Board Democrat Carolyn Bunker did not vote for the compromise plan, meaning that the State Board of Elections will settle the argument during their meeting addressing nonunanimous early voting plans.
NC A&T students have a documented history of standing up for their rights, said Mikayla Massey, NC Black Alliance democracy and economy program manager.
“North Carolina A&T students came together in 1960 at the Woolworth counter to fight against segregation,” she said during the pre-meeting rally.
“In 2019, North Carolina A&T students came together to protect our congressional district from being split to fight against gerrymandering. And each time, these students are on the right side of history. Our county board of elections has an opportunity today to be on the right side of history.”
As county election boards across the state wrap up their meetings ahead of the July 24 deadline, Guilford County becomes the 22nd nonunanimous plan.
Pros and cons of campus early voting sites
During court proceedings in the primary election fight over campus early voting sites in Guilford and Jackson counties, US District Court Judge William Osteen Jr. said he had a hard time understanding how excluding NC A&T and UNC-G campus early voting sites in a midterm election year violated anyone’s right to vote.
After all, the campus sites had only ever been used during presidential election years to date.
During a rally before the county board meeting, Kema Leonard, North Carolina Democratic Party impact organizer, said he didn’t care about that excuse; he wants campus sites for every election.
“I don’t care because we already have the infrastructure and we have the voters already there,” he said.
One meeting attendee, Jonathon, said what’s legally permissible isn’t necessarily morally right.
“So what? Maybe you don’t have to. Maybe you should do a little more than you have to,” he said.
With the rise of political organizing and education on social media, more college students are realizing how important elections are, even those that happen in nonpresidential years, said Jaelle Garvin, an incoming NC A&T freshman.
She wants Guilford County’s early voting opportunities to reflect that reality. Garvin came to Tuesday’s meeting to advocate for the Black community and students. NC A&T is the largest historically Black college or university in the nation, with more than 15,000 students. UNCG has more than 18,000 students.
As a Greensboro resident, Garvin already has an understanding of what’s happening in the community, but said out-of-state students don’t have the same knowledge. Having a campus site is critical for these students who need a bit more convenience as they’re learning to vote for the first time, she added.
“We need the opportunity to educate our peers and let them know that hey, come out and vote,” she said. “But it’s hard to do that when we don’t have the support from our communities and those who are there to represent us.”
The meeting lasted just over 20 minutes, but was just as tense as other, longer early voting meetings have been across the state in recent months.
In the middle of discussion, an audience member called the board’s actions “racist” and said they were “cheating students.” He was removed by police.
All the nonunanimous plans
The State Board is preparing for a long meeting or series of meetings in the coming weeks. Board members must decide early voting plans for all counties that cannot come to a unanimous agreement.
This year, that’s at least 22 counties. Carolina Public Press was unable to determine the outcome of early voting meetings in Henderson and Swain counties prior to publication of this article.
Since the state auditor took over election appointment power last summer, the number of divided votes has risen. In the last midterm election, there were 13 nonunanimous plans. In 2018, there were 15. In the last presidential election, there were 12.
The last time there were more than 22 was during the 2016 general election, when 33 counties couldn’t come to an agreement.
Early voting is widely popular in North Carolina, across partisan and demographic divides. In the 2022 midterm election, more than half of voters used early voting, while in the 2024 presidential election, nearly three-fourths opted to cast ballots early.
But partisan divides still exist over site location and weekend voting — Democrats generally prefer Sunday voting, Republicans tend to oppose it. While Democrats might support sites on college campuses or in more urban areas where they’d expect a blue tilt. Republicans might prefer more rural areas favorable to their party.
This cycle, 18 counties disagreed over Saturday or Sunday voting, and a smaller number differed on site location and number.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.
