College Democrats sue over Guilford, Jackson county early voting sites

The College Democrats of North Carolina and four individual students are suing state and local elections officials for not allowing early voting on three college campuses in Guilford and Jackson counties.

Students from North Carolina A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Western Carolina University are plaintiffs along with the College Democrats. Democratic operative Marc Elias’ law firm helps represent the plaintiffs.

The suit filed Tuesday in federal court targets the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the two county elections boards. Republicans hold 3-2 majorities on the state and local boards. In each case, Republican board members at the local and state level outvoted Democrats who supported on-campus early voting sites.

Each affected campus hosted an early voting site during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

“Contrary to the views of Defendant Eugene Lester, the Guilford County elections board chair, voting is a right of citizenship — not a privilege,” the students’ lawyers wrote. “This case is about targeted efforts to place additional, unnecessary, burdensome, and ultimately unjustifiable obstacles between students at three North Carolina universities — including the nation’s largest historically Black university — and this fundamental constitutional right.

The three campuses “serve over 40,000 students,” according to the complaint. “For multiple election cycles, those students have been able to vote early at early voting sites on their campuses. Having that on-campus access has been no mere convenience — it has been critical for overcoming the barriers that student voters face when they attempt to access the franchise, including lack of personal transportation, unfamiliarity with off-campus geography, demanding class and work schedules that leave little time for travel, and limited financial resources. For many students, on-campus early voting enables access to the franchise.”

“Moreover, because same day voter registration is available at early voting sites and not election day polling sites, the on-campus accessibility was critical to ensuring not only that registered voters were able to vote, but that young North Carolinians who were voting for the very first time or updating their voter registration were able to do so in time to participate in the state’s elections.”

The students oppose the state elections board’s Jan. 13 decision not to have early voting sites on those campuses this year. “Along the way, state and county officials brushed aside urgent warnings that their decisions would disproportionately burden young and Black voters and denigrated students who advocated for their rights,” according to the lawsuit.

“These closures intentionally target the rights of young voters,” the lawsuit claims.

The students characterize arguments against the campus early voting sites as “troubling” and “thin.” “Guilford County officials cited low turnout and claimed resources would be better spent on communities deemed more politically engaged, a characterization that is especially fraught for students at NC A&T and UNC-G, both of which serve large numbers of Black voters,” according to the lawsuit. “Meanwhile, officials in Jackson County cited cost savings and logistical issues that simply don’t hold up to scrutiny. Lacking any legitimate justifications for the closures, state and county election officials flippantly dismissed student concerns by declaring that university students are ‘adults’ who are too capable and mobile to need voting sites on campus.”

The plaintiffs seek to have early voting sites restored on the three campuses by the time early voting begins on Feb. 12 for the March 3 primary election.

“The real reason for the elimination of on-campus early voting at these universities appears to be a judgment that student voters — and disproportionately Black student voters — do not deserve the same level of accessibility as other voters in their counties,” the students’ lawyers wrote. “That judgment contradicts the Constitution and basic principles of equal treatment.”

While all three campuses hosted early voting sites in 2024, NCA&T never has had a site in a midterm election, the John Locke Foundation’s Andy Jackson noted on X/Twitter. Jackson directs Locke’s Civitas Center for Public Integrity.

1/2
1. There has never been a midterm early voting site at A&T, so nothing was removed.

2. When A&T had an early voting site in the 2024 presidential primary, it was the least used site in Guilford County (see link below). #ncpol https://t.co/LtuvoDfw4u pic.twitter.com/n9o0TxKF5T

— Andy Jackson (@andyinrok) January 28, 2026

“When A&T had an early voting site in the 2024 presidential primary, it was the least used site in Guilford County,” Jackson wrote.

“Being the least-used site is not automatically disqualifying, but there are other sites in central Greensboro,” Jackson added.

“College Democrats sue over Guilford, Jackson county early voting sites” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.