NC elections board rejects Sunday voting, campus polling sites in handful of counties
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- State Board of Elections to resolve 12 counties’ disputes over Sunday voting.
- Twelve county boards will present majority and minority early-voting plans Tuesday.
- Students protested Guilford’s refusal to add an on-campus polling site at NC A&T.
In a heated meeting punctuated by a student protest, the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday rejected Sunday voting hours and on-campus polling sites for a handful of counties in the March primary election.
In mostly party-line votes, the board’s new Republican majority voted to approve early voting plans from 12 counties where election boards were unable to reach a unanimous agreement.
This included voting against a proposal to include early voting sites at UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University, prompting a confrontation with students who had come in support of the sites.
The State Board of Elections also voted against including Sunday voting in six counties that had disagreed on the issue and cut a longtime early voting site at Western Carolina University.
These types of disagreements are common, and state law has long required that if county boards can’t reach a unanimous decision, the state will have the final say. But in the wake of a massive restructuring of North Carolina’s election apparatus earlier this year — which flipped all boards to Republican control — the state handled these disputes far differently than in the past.
On-campus polling sites
In total, Republicans on the State Board of Elections rejected plans to include early voting sites at four different universities: UNCG, NC A&T, WCU and Elon University.
All of those sites have been used at some point in the recent past, but WCU’s is the only site that had been used in the most recent comparable election, which was the 2022 primary.
Dozens of students from A&T, a historically Black university, showed up to Tuesday’s meeting in support of a polling site on campus, holding signs that said “Aggies vote” and “let us vote where we learn.”
After the board voted 3-2 to deny the site, the students walked to the front of the room and confronted members with their signs, with one student saying, “If we were a different color or looked different, this would be a different outcome.”
Board Chair Francis De Luca, a Republican, threatened to call Capitol Police on the students, who left the room shortly after.
Board members cited a variety of reasons for denying the sites, including cost, parking and geography.
But Democrats argued that without them, voting could become inaccessible for students without cars who spend most of their time on campus.
“If the WCU site is eliminated, youth voter turnout would decline,” Betsy Swift, a Democratic member of the Jackson County Board of Elections, said. “Fewer young voters would establish lifelong voting habits. Voters would shift to other sites, increasing congestion, same day registration workload and staffing burdens.”
Jackson County Board Chair Bill Thompson, a Republican, said students should be able to navigate the changes.
“I would remind everyone that we when we talk about students, we’re not talking about kindergartners who need help tying their shoes and opening their milk cartons,” he said. “We’re talking about adults who are seeking their postsecondary education. These adults have demonstrated above-average ability and mobility.”
Sunday voting
Sunday voting has long been a subject of debate in North Carolina, and Tuesday’s meeting was no different.
Board members spent hours arguing over the six counties that split over Sunday voting in trying to pass an early voting plan.
Four of those counties (Columbus, Greene, Harnett and Wayne) had at least one day of Sunday voting in the 2022 primary. Democrats in Brunswick and Craven, however, were attempting to add Sundays despite not having them in 2022.
Ultimately, the state board’s 3-2 Republican majority voted against Sunday voting in all six counties.
The practice has historically been popular among Black voters, having been featured in “souls to the polls” events in which churchgoers cast their ballots after services.
But Republicans have long sought to limit Sunday voting, sometimes citing religious reasons and sometimes financial ones.
De Luca told reporters he was personally opposed to Sunday voting.
“I don’t think we should be voting on Sunday,” he said. “I know lots of people do nothing on Sunday because that’s the Lord’s day.”
Board member Jeff Carmon, a Democrat, defended Sunday voting during the meeting.
“Regardless of your political affiliation, you don’t have to vote on Sunday, but it should be made available,” he said.
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 9:14 AM.
