More than 100 students from North Carolina A&T State University and UNC Greensboro headed to the polls to mark the first day of early voting Thursday.
Dozens of A&T students gathered on campus in 85-degree heat.
North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Anita Earls, state Sen. Gladys Robinson and state House Minority Leader Robert Reives sent students back to vote and encouraged them to bring their friends to the polls, too.
“You came when they confiscated your voting site,” Reives said. “You have to do your duty today, and then you have to make sure that all the students who didn’t get their vote today get them there.”
The protest comes after the Guilford County Board of Elections denied early voting sites on the campus of NC A&T and UNCG, which they had used in 2024, but never for the midterm elections.
It took A&T students about 45 minutes to reach Union Square – now the closest early voting location. Some sections of the sidewalk were missing or blocked by branches, forcing people out into the street.
At Union Square, Dasiyah Weiters, a freshman at UNCG, waited in line to vote. She had joined the march after a class.
“This is my first time voting, so I want to make sure my voice is heard,” she said.
The line extended outside the building. Student organizer Xavier Jones said he hoped the turnout would send a message to election officials.
“We will come and make our voice heard clearly, no matter how far you move a polling place from our campus, no matter how far you drag it down the street, no matter if you put it on the other side of Greensboro, we will organize. We will march,” Jones said.
Early voting ends October 31.
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