Over the past few months, county election boards have figured out their plans for early voting sites and schedules for the 2026 March primary election.
The majority of North Carolina counties came to unanimous agreement, while 12 disagreed on some aspect of early voting. The non-unanimous plans will go to the State Board of Elections on Jan. 13, when board members will make a final decision.
This cycle’s non-unanimous plans follow typical patterns — disagreement over Sunday voting, number of early voting sites and specific locations — but one thing has changed. Republicans now hold a majority on county boards and the state elections board for the first time since 2016, meaning they get the final say on how early voting is handled this year.
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Even unanimous county-level decisions reflect this change. Weekend voting and early voting sites were cut or are at risk of being cut in over a quarter of counties.
But it’s not necessarily the doomsday some Democrats predicted. Eighteen counties added locations or Saturday voting days, and 17 of the 21 counties that offered Sunday voting during the last midterm primary election will keep it, according to a Common Cause North Carolina analysis.
Sunday (and Saturday) voting
Few things are certain: life, death and disagreements over Sunday voting. For the most part, members of both major parties have accepted early voting as a positive development. But every year, at least a few election boards still squabble over whether to allow early voting on Sundays.
“There’s been a real battle over Sunday voting for quite some time, with Republicans on the boards generally not supporting it,” said Common Cause North Carolina policy and civic engagement manager Tyler Daye. Daye leads Common Cause’s county election board monitoring program.
In Greene County, county election board members came to loggerheads over three hours of early voting. Board Democrats and Republicans agreed on the number of early voting sites and their locations, but not whether to allow early voting on one Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.
During the 2022 midterm primary election, the county had early voting on one Sunday. Board Republican Stephen Rouse wants to eliminate that day.
“It’s hard to get poll workers, we’re only losing three hours, and I just don’t think it’s worth it to vote on Sunday,” he said during the county election board meeting.
Rouse is also principledly opposed to Sunday voting. Like many Republicans, he cites religious reasons — for many Christians, Sundays are days of rest and worship.
Greene County’s two other Republican election board members supported Rouse’s plan. Republican chair Jody Tyson said past confusion and drama over poll worker pay has exacerbated the recruitment issue.
Board Democrat Ben Lanier vehemently opposed the Republican plan. When he was chair, no issue arose with recruiting poll workers for Sunday early voting, he said. He also expressed skepticism over Republicans’ religious justification for cutting Sunday voting.
“I’m quite sure there are other things you do on Sunday that you’re not so godly that you can’t do that,” Lanier said.
Similar arguments took place in Brunswick, Craven, Columbus, Harnett, Pitt and Wayne counties.
Brunswick County Elections Director Sara LaVere said Sunday voting has been a consistent issue in past elections. There, Democrats pushed for two weeks of Sunday voting for six hours, while Republicans wanted neither.
Democrats Edward Lewis and Paula Clarity wrote a letter to the State Board of Elections stating their case ahead of the Jan. 13 meeting.
They wrote that no member of the public who spoke at the county meeting was against Sunday voting, and many expressed a need to expand weekend voting in light of population growth.
“We will also soon outgrow the current Election Day voting locations,” they wrote.
More early voting, in their eyes, helps relieve some of the long lines and tedious counting on Election Day. They added that the Souls to the Polls movement, which involves primarily Black congregations going to the polls right after worship, benefits from Sunday early voting.
“These communities of faith are important to North Carolina’s African-American population,” the Democrats wrote. “Voting together after church demonstrates they are civically minded and active.”
There’s never been Sunday voting in a Craven County midterm primary election, said election director Susan Williams. But this year, board Democrats advocated for the addition. As in most counties, they were outnumbered three to two.
However, every rule has exceptions. In Columbus County, Republican board chair Jillian McPherson sided with Democrats to support Sunday voting, election director Ashley Collins said. Since the other Republicans disagreed, the majority and minority plans will still go to the State Board of Elections for a final determination.
Daye was surprised by the Columbus County result.
“In these counties, there’s so much that’s localized, and there are dynamics locally that affect the decisions that are made,” he said.
In the Columbus County case, higher weekend turnout may have factored into McPherson’s decision.
On the other hand, the conversation in Harnett, Pitt and Wayne counties revolved around lower turnout during historical Sunday voting days.
Harnett County Republican board member Rickie Day said cutting Sunday is an opportunity to save a bit of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Early voting sites
The other non-unanimous plans that will be addressed by the state board on Jan. 13 fall into two buckets: disagreements over the number of early voting sites or the location of sites.
Madison County, for example, hosted three early voting sites in the 2022 midterm primary election. But board Republicans now want to cut back to just one early voting site, election director Jacob Ray said. It’s the county’s first non-unanimous plan in over a decade, he added.
In Pitt County, Republicans want six sites, whereas Democrats want to maintain five — in addition to the Sunday disagreement.
Daye said cutting sites causes confusion for voters who are accustomed to certain voting locations.
“They may just find out in February that, oh, that site that I’ve been going to is no longer available,” he said.
Alamance County board members agreed to add a third site, but couldn’t decide where to put it, said election deputy director Charlene Bolin. Democrats pushed for a voting location at the Elon University gym, while the Republican majority opted for the Kernodle Senior Center.
In Cumberland County, board members disagreed over whether to include the Kiwanis Recreation Center or the Spring Lake Community Center in their early voting sites. While the Republican-supported Kiwanis Recreation Center has been used historically, the Spring Lake site serves a part of the county that board Democrat Irene Grimes said she feels is underserved.
Two counties weighed a particularly salient issue: early voting on college campuses. In Jackson County, Republican board members voted to remove a longstanding site at Western Carolina University. According to an analysis by WCU political science professor Chris Cooper, that site has increased youth early voting turnout. In eight of the nine past elections, the WCU site placed highest in proportion of same-day registrations offered, as it serves a large student population.
Meanwhile, Guilford County Democrat Carolyn Bunker made a bid to add early voting sites at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and University of North Carolina-Greensboro. In the past, those sites have been used during presidential years, but not for midterm primary elections. Bunker also advocated for sites at Barber Park and Washington Terrace, which are located in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods.
Republican board chair Eugene Lester III said he believes plenty of sites distributed across the county can serve college students without making any additions.
“We’re certainly not going to look at one group and say that that group is more important than any other group,” he said. “Every citizen ought to have a right to vote. They have that opportunity to take advantage of it.”
Bunker disagrees.
“The bottom line is, I think that they are trying to disenfranchise a certain part of the population — two parts of the population, the poor and the students,” she said.
Daye hopes that the state board errs on the side of expanding voting access in its decision making. Early voting is convenient, lightens the Election Day workload and allows voters who don’t realize they need to update their registration or fix another issue to resolve that before it’s too late, Daye said. Plus, it’s hugely popular, setting records almost annually.
“There’s just so many benefits, I think, to early voting,” Daye said. “I think people have recognized that, and that’s part of the reason why it’s become so popular among people of all parties. I’m hopeful that county board members and the state board will recognize that as they are viewing and determining plans in the future.”
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