Dozens of North Carolina A&T State University students recently walked more than 30 minutes to a nearby polling site, holding signs that said “Aggie Votes Matter,” “Use Your Vote or Lose Your Vote,” and other signs after they found out there was no early voting site on campus.
In January, the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected early voting sites on AT&T’s campus and three other colleges across the state ahead of the March 3 primary election. In response, Protect Ours NC, a student coalition not affiliated with the university, organized a walk to nearby polling stations, which went viral on social media.
“We really wanted to change that and to establish a secure, permanent early polling site on our campus so that students can have as much access as possible,” said Olu Rouse, one of the student coalition’s co-leads alongside Shia Rozier.
Rouse, a senior at North Carolina A&T, said students at the university have fought for accessible polling places since before he and his peers arrived on campus in Greensboro almost four years ago.
Young adults made up a larger share of nonvoters in 2024 than in 2020 (30% vs. 25%), according to the Pew Research Center. Yet, Black college students at universities with a rich history of activism are rejecting the national trend, student leaders say. At A&T, students remained determined to cast early ballots despite having no on-campus polling site.
In Houston, Texas Southern University students marched to a nearby early polling site at a local church after students said officials were trying to gerrymander their voting district.
“We’re here because we refuse to be silenced,” Chardai Victorian, the president of the National Council of Negro Women Collegiate Section at Texas Southern, said in a video posted to Instagram. “We refuse to let our votes go in vain because they decide to gerrymander, because they decide to redo districting lines.”
Behind the student, dozens more walked the streets chanting, “This is what democracy looks like!”
Texas Southern is in the 18th Congressional District.
Texas’ primaries arrive at a pivotal moment for the state and for national politics. On the ballot are the closely watched race for the 18th District as well as a high-profile contest for the U.S. Senate, which could yield the state’s first Black member of Congress’ upper chamber.
Congressional District 18, a seat that was once held by the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, sits at the center of a debate over not only redistricting but also generational change.
What’s happened in N.C.?
Back in North Carolina in February, students pushed back against the Guilford County Board of Elections’ decision not to establish early polling sites on some college campuses. Portions of Guilford County are in Congressional District 6, which was affected by redistricting efforts in 2023. That year, the North Carolina General Assembly approved a map that made the district more Republican-friendly.
The controversy over campus polling locations comes just months after North Carolina Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map again, with the goal of controlling 11 of the state’s 14 congressional districts. The party had previously controlled 10 seats. The district most affected by this most recent change was Congressional District 1, which has had Black representation since the 1990s.
Early voting in North Carolina ended Feb. 28.
Later this year, North Carolina voters will be heading to the polls to decide a number of contests, including a U.S. Senate race and races for Congressional Districts 1, 4, and 11.
Charlie Collicutt, director of the Guilford County Board of Elections, told Capital B that A&T was not selected this year as an early voting site and has never had an early polling site for midterm elections since early voting started in North Carolina in 2000.
Yet, A&T was selected for early voting in the presidential general election in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, he said. It wasn’t until 2020 that the board used North Carolina A&T State University for the presidential primary in 2020 and 2024, as well as the general elections.
“There’s been a slow build over time of the use of A&T,” Collicutt said. “If you look back to the last presidential election and it’s not on the schedule or the map, I mean … I see where the student could easily make that conclusion.”
However, he said A&T did have an on-campus polling site on Election Day, March 3.
Before the primary, Protect Ours and more than 60 students took their concerns to the Guilford County Board of Elections. The students said they were met with disparaging comments from some officials, Rouse told Capital B.
“It’s very disheartening hearing the chair of the Guilford County Board of Elections say that it wasn’t our right to vote,” the senior political science and economics major said.
Collicutt denies the students’ accounts of what happened.
He pushed back, saying there have been several meetings at different levels where early polling locations have been debated.
“I think that there are comments that came from members of some other boards that might have been getting conflated with things that our board members may have said,” Collicutt said.
The students say the political shift in North Carolina plays a big part in the decisions. Years ago, Democrats held the majority in the state.
“Our county … had a Democratic Party majority, now it has a Republican Party majority,” Rouse said. “What we’ve been seeing across North Carolina is a lot of counties are seeing that flip and seeing voting access removed by these boards of elections. This isn’t just something that is unique to Guilford County.”
North Carolina A&T officials declined to comment.
During a recent mobilization effort, students told The A&T Register that they were showing up for the students and their voting rights.
“At the county Board of Elections meeting, they said A&T doesn’t show up,” Yasmina Issaka told the university’s student newspaper. “They said we have the lowest numbers, so since we do have the lowest numbers, we’re trying to show y’all we want to increase our numbers.”
After they said they were silenced by the local board of elections, Protect Ours said they took the issue to the state Board of Elections in Raleigh but were also shut down with no public comment.
Other organizations, mostly nonprofits not affiliated with the university, began helping the students in their efforts to get more people to vote early by sponsoring transportation to the polls and providing doughnuts.
“We have been so blessed, as well as supported by our community in this effort,” Rouse said. “Without their continued support, it just wouldn’t have been possible.”