North Carolina legislators closed their on-campus voting sites. HBCU students marched miles to vote anyway

On 15 October, the first day of early voting in North Carolina, mostly Black students from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (NC A&T), Bennett College and University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) marched from their college campuses to their nearest polling sites for the first day of early voting.Previously, students were able to vote on their respective campuses; however, late last year, with Republicans at the helm, the North Carolina board of elections removed several polling sites from local colleges: UNCG, NC A&T, Western Carolina University (WCU) and Elon University. As a result, students have taken it upon themselves to organize voting. The marches – two, so far – took about two hours round trip, but to the students, protecting their right to vote, they say, is worth it.“I think that a lot of students wanted to come and march because they knew that it would make a statement,” said Dihanna Williams, a student at NC A&T. “It would show them that, despite y’all taking away something that should be a right to us, we’re still going to go out and vote because that’s also a right for us and that’s something that our ancestors fought so hard for us to accomplish. I don’t think that anything would have gotten in the way of A&T students voting.”College Democrats of North Carolina, from NC A&T, UNCG and WCU, sued the North Carolina state board of elections over the early voting sites back in January. According to the lawsuit, without a polling place on campus, WCU students without cars (more than 60% of the student body) would have to walk nearly two miles – in parts along a four-lane highway with no sidewalks or guardrails – to reach the nearest polling site. Indeed, in February, some WCU students marched that distance to reach their new early voting site.The suit noted that NC A&T is the country’s largest HBCU, while WCU’s polling place served more Black voters than any other polling site in its county during the 2024 election.“State and county officials brushed aside urgent warnings that their decisions would disproportionately burden young and Black voters and denigrated students who advocated for their rights,” the lawsuit said.The marches are part of broader efforts to combat voter suppression, organized both by students and by national organizations, such as the Michelle Obama-founded When We All Vote. During the second march, which took place on 22 October, hundreds of students were joined by the actress Marsai Martin, a co-chair of When We All Vote, a nonpartisan initiative to increase young and minority voter turnout, and the recent Love Island USA winner Trinity Tatum, who’s also an ambassador for the organization.“I’ve realized that if we want things to change, we’ve got to show up together. It’s hard to think of another campus showing up as hard as North Carolina A&T,” Martin said to the crowd. “We are here to celebrate something that this campus has made very clear. Y’all do not back down.”Shia Rozier, a senior at NC A&T and a co-founder of Protect Ours, a student-led organization that helps run shuttles to the polls, has been working with other students to mobilize around voting. Since her freshman year, Rozier has gone to state board of election meetings in Raleigh and protested for polling sites.“It has been a continuous back and forth trying to make sure we have on-campus polling sites, which is really essential at a campus,” Rozier said.While some students may have responded to the removal of polling sites with apathy or taken it as an excuse to not vote, Alexis Cox, a junior honors political science student, said that it only fired the students up.“Students feel even more motivated to get out and vote,” Cox said. “That’s why we were so enthusiastic about marching in the heat to our polling site, showing other students how to vote and offering rides to each other and we’ve also organized different shuttle services to the polls.”During NC A&T’s homecoming last week, campus leaders held Votecoming: Party at the Polls, a voter mobilization effort, as part of When We All Vote’s efforts. When We All Vote’s Party at the Polls has been associated with a two to four-percentage point increase in voter turnout. Rozier said that student organizers are also hosting voting-centric cookouts and events.“It really brings back a culture where voting is engaging after a time where you’re fighting for your rights,” she said. “It’s unpleasant to be told by your representatives that your voice doesn’t matter. We’re pivoting and just deciding, ‘If it didn’t matter as much, you guys wouldn’t be working to take it away.’”