North Carolina election board rejects early voting site at country’s largest Black university

As Black students silently protested, Republican state officials denied their request to provide a primary election early voting location at North Carolina A&T State University, the largest of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities. 

It’s the latest in a string of recent moves by the state election board, which came under GOP control in May, to restrict voting in the Tar Heel State.

Students wrote a letter to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) asking for the campus polling site, saying it would “ensure voting is easy and accessible,” particularly for students who don’t have cars. 

But in a 3-2 vote along party lines, the NCSBE refused the request Tuesday, approving an early voting plan for Guilford County without a campus location. 

The NCSBE also approved early voting plans for 11 other counties that did not unanimously adopt plans on their own – often because of disagreements over whether to include Sunday voting hours, or whether to include specific locations.

The debate over Sunday voting grew heated, with both Democrats on the board slamming Republicans for trying to restrict access to the polls. 

“If you can shop on Sunday, if you can watch football on Sunday and watch basketball on Sunday, I think there are very few things in this state that you can’t do on Sunday,” Jeff Carmon, a Democratic member of the board, said.

Ross Hardeman, chair of the Craven County board of elections, asked state officials to approve a plan without Sunday voting hours.

“Campaign workers, election workers and board staff should be able to have a consistent weekend day off, choose to worship if they choose to do so, spend time with their families,” Hardeman said.

Siobhan O’Duffy Millen, the other Democratic member, said she received over 1,000 emails from residents about early voting plans – none of them opposing Sunday voting hours or campus voting locations.

Republican members pushed back on the campus voting location for the university, saying it wasn’t needed and questioning whether there would be parking easily available to the public.

Carmon blasted the board for refusing students’ request.

“These students are saying, ‘We want our site. We want to engage with the process,’” Carmon said. “I don’t think we should do anything but support that.” 

Students weren’t given the opportunity to speak at the meeting, but they sat at the front holding signs.

Carmon voted “absolutely, totally, hell no” to the board’s motion, while board chair Francis X. De Luca, a Republican, voted “emphatically yes.” 

“It’s a war on students,” Millen said as the vote concluded. Republicans on the board responded that it was not. 

“What is it then? What is it when you tell them that they can’t have a site?” Carmon asked.

Students quietly stood, facing the board members, holding up their signs. 

“There are plenty of places. Go vote,” De Luca told them, growing agitated shortly before the audio feed temporarily cut out.

Since Republicans took control of the state election board in May, it has taken several steps to restrict voting in the state. 

The board has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice on a legal settlement requiring voters to provide more personal information or risk being disenfranchised. It has also pushed for unprecedented access to voters’ full social security numbers. And its executive director has unveiled sweeping legislation that would further cut back voting access in the state.