Despite strong public opposition, Republicans on the Wake County Board of Elections have rejected the NC State University student center as an early voting site for the upcoming general election.
In a 3-2 vote, Republicans rejected a plan to keep the Talley Student Center as an early voting site, arguing that it is too difficult for people who live off campus to find parking. The site was used for early voting in 2012, 2018, 2020, and 2024 and in several primaries. A building about a mile away will be swapped out for Talley under the plan the board approved.
Speaking in support of the student center, Wake County Board Member Gerry Cohen said that the 47,000 people who live, study, and work at NC State make up a community as large as many Wake municipalities. Talley has more available parking than another early voting site, he said, and is a location familiar to voters.
This is just the latest campus voting site to be shut down since Republicans took control of the state and local boards of election. Back in January, the GOP-controlled State Board of Elections rejected early voting sites at NC A&T– the nation’s largest historically Black college– and three other college campuses across the state, including Western Carolina University, UNC Greensboro, and Elon University.
Republicans seized control of election boards last year under a law that stripped Governor Stein of appointment powers and gave them to State Auditor Dave Boliek– who has been accused of pressuring election board members to move early voting locations.
This month, Jay Pavey, a Republican member of the Jackson County elections board, voted to place an early voting site at Western Carolina University. Pavey said he had been threatened by members of his party with removal from the board if he voted for the campus site. Jackson County Board of Elections Chair Bill Thompson also said there was pressure from the auditor’s office to choose an alternative to the WCU site.
Students and voting rights experts have warned that the Board of Elections is threatening student voting rights in North Carolina. But it has also activated student advocacy efforts to get out the vote.
Two students at NC A&T– Shia Rozier and Terence Olu Rouse– started a voter protection campaign called Protect Ours, which is raising funds to transport students to their closest off-campus voting site. Protect Ours also seeks to educate students so that they don’t feel intimidated by comments that could undermine their right to vote.
Students are organizing at other colleges too. Back in February, WCU students marched together for 40 minutes alongside a busy highway to vote at their new polling place.
“There’s nothing that the board of elections is going to do to stop me from voting,” Rouse said. “We want to make sure that we’re doing outreach efforts to every single college so that we can really grow this movement, and make it more than just a moment and more of a movement.”
