More than 80 percent of eligible voters aged 18 to 29 in key battleground states said that they “probably” or “definitely” plan to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, according to a recent survey. Despite this enthusiasm, deep concerns remain that thousands of student voters may be thwarted from casting their ballot come November by an absence of polling sites on college campuses.
On October 15, the first day of in-person early voting in North Carolina, more than 100 students walked 40 minutes to the Guilford County Courthouse to cast their ballots after a Republican-majority state board of elections denied requests for early voting sites at two Greensboro universities.
The students, from North Carolina A&T State University, the largest historically Black university in the country, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, had access to on-campus early voting during the 2024 election. While dozens of students advocated for adding the two polling sites, the sites were ultimately denied in January, with the board citing low turnout…