The Guilford County Board of Elections voted Tuesday in favor of an early voting plan that does not include polling places at North Carolina A&T and UNC Greensboro, despite repeated student calls to keep in place campus sites used in the 2024 general election.
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The map, which passed 4-1, keeps in place 13 of the 15 early voting sites used in the 2022 midterm election, moves two others, and adds two new ones. The 2022 plan, adopted by a Democratic majority board, did not include any early voting sites on university campuses, and students wanted that to change.
The board voted to add voting sites in Greensboro’s Union Square and Stokesdale Town Hall. But they declined to add any of the campus polling places from the 2024 election, which included sites at NC A&T, UNC Greensboro, and Guilford Technical Community College.
The two sites to be moved are those at Jamestown’s Griffin Recreation Center, which will shift to Jamestown Town Hall, and Pleasant Garden Town Hall, which will shift to Pleasant Garden Community Center.
Because the vote was not unanimous, the State Board of Elections will make the final decision on the county’s slate of voting sites.
NC Auditor Boliek expressed polling site preferences and looked to boost GOP turnout, messages show.
Meetings to decide early voting sites have emerged as a battleground over voting rights this year, as the Republican-controlled State Board of Elections has sought to limit campus polling places. Last week, a two-hour Granville County Board of Elections meeting erupted into shouts and boos as members failed to pass a majority plan.
Guilford’s hearing was speedier and less contentious, lasting less than half an hour. Members did not raise their voices at one another or cut each other off. However, at least one member of the public was removed from the meeting room after shouting, “You don’t care about these people!” amid discussion of the campus polling places.
“This is a business meeting. This is not a concert. This is not a political rally,” said board chair Eugene Lester, a Republican. “If you call out at us or the board members as someone just did, you’ll be asked to leave. You need to maintain your decorum.”
Midterm election years generally have fewer sites open than presidential election years. While 2024 saw 28 early voting sites in Guilford County, 2022 saw only 15. The 17 early voting sites under the board’s proposal would be the most ever in a midterm election year for the county.
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Carolyn Bunker, one of the board’s two Democratic members, was the sole vote against the plan. She had proposed retaining two of the 2024 university early voting sites for this year’s midterms.
“One out of four younger voters, 18 to 25, voted during the 2024 presidential election at these two sites that we had,” Bunker said. “We can, I think, expand our sites fairly easily and give our folks the things that they have asked for, and [have] diligently come to our board of elections meetings and requested.”
The sites at UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T saw 6,800 and 6,487 early voters in 2024, respectively, making them the #16 and #17 most used sites in Guilford County during the presidential election.
By contrast, the Stokesdale site that board members voted to add from the 2024 general election map saw the fewest voters of any site in the county that year, with 2,857 early ballots.
Board members argued that the new Union Square site, situated in the heart of Greensboro, would fully accommodate students’ needs alongside an existing site at Guilford County Courthouse downtown.
Lester, the board chair, noted that the Union Square site would be located on a collaborative campus with Guilford Technical Community College, North Carolina A&T, UNC Greensboro, and Cone Health as partners.
“I think we have a majority plan that sets out 17 sites in Guilford County, including sites that are uniquely suited to GTCC, A&T, and Greensboro students downtown,” Lester said.
Because the board did not reach a unanimous decision, the final early voting map for Guilford County will be up to the discretion of the State Board of Elections. They may select the map approved by the board’s 4-1 vote, an alternative submitted by any board member, or substitute their own proposal for early voting sites.
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