Guilford County still must set fall early voting sites after High Point dispute

Guilford County voters still do not know whether Washington Terrace Park will return to the fall early voting map, and the delay is already reviving the distrust that followed the site’s omission from the 2026 primary plan. The county Board of Elections has not crafted a general election early voting schedule yet, and discussion likely will not begin until mid-May at the earliest.

That uncertainty matters because early voting access has already been a flashpoint in High Point and Greensboro. The county’s 2026 primary plan removed Washington Terrace Park, along with UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T as early voting sites, even as voters and community leaders warned that the changes would make it harder for people to cast ballots close to home.

The dispute intensified after the Guilford County Board of Elections approved a 10-site primary plan on Nov. 18, 2025. High Point officials responded quickly, and the High Point City Council passed a resolution on Jan. 12, 2026, urging that Washington Terrace Park be included. The next day, the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved the county plan by a 3-2 vote despite access concerns.

The final primary plan kept two early voting sites in High Point, Deep River Recreation Center and Roy B. Culler Jr. Senior Center, but left Washington Terrace Park out. Early voting for the March 3 primary ran from Feb. 12 through Feb. 28, with the final Saturday ending at 3 p.m. Washington Terrace Park had been used for primary early voting in Guilford County from 2012 through 2024, except in 2022 because of COVID restrictions.

Advocacy groups including the Legal Defense Fund, Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Common Cause North Carolina urged state election officials to reject the county plan, arguing that it missed crucial sites in areas with high concentrations of Black eligible voters and limited public transportation access. Residents and leaders in High Point made the same case locally, saying the loss of Washington Terrace Park would burden elderly, working-class and transit-dependent voters and could suppress turnout in the neighborhood.

The concern has not faded. The High Point NAACP organized a December rally opposing the omission, and community churches joined the pushback as the primary vote approached. Now the county’s next public meeting, set for 2 p.m. May 19 at the Old Guilford County Courthouse in downtown Greensboro, is the earliest formal chance for officials to settle whether the fall plan will restore Washington Terrace Park or repeat the access fight that split the county in January.