North Carolina voting board weighs cuts to Sunday and campus early voting
Sunday voting and campus sites could shrink in North Carolina, a change activists say would hit Black churchgoers and students who rely on early voting.
North Carolina voting officials are weighing cuts to Sunday early voting and campus polling places, a change voting-rights activists call a blatant effort to make it harder for Black voters and students to cast ballots this fall. The State Board of Elections has authority over county early-voting plans and has become a recurring flash point over how many days counties must open, whether Sundays stay on the calendar and which campuses host sites.
Early voting lets North Carolinians vote in person before Election Day, and the same period also allows in-person registration. That makes the schedule more than a convenience issue in a state where early voting is the most popular way to vote and where transportation, work hours and weekend obligations shape turnout.
The effects would not fall evenly across the state. In Guilford County, access at N.C. A&T State University and UNC Greensboro has been at the center of campus voting disputes. Western Carolina University has been part of the fight in Jackson County, and NC State University in Wake County has also figured in the broader campus-access debate. The board has been involved in early-voting plans in Mecklenburg County as well, underscoring how county-by-county decisions can determine whether a campus site stays open or disappears.
Sunday voting carries its own political and civic weight. In Black communities, it is closely tied to church-based Souls to the Polls drives, which move congregants from worship services to the polls. Researchers have found that Black early voters in North Carolina disproportionately cast ballots in the first week of early voting in presidential elections, which means any cut to Sunday hours or the early stretch of voting can change who shows up and when.
Common Cause North Carolina says a poll found that voters, regardless of party, overwhelmingly support Sunday voting and favor college-campus voting sites. The debate also echoes North Carolina’s post-Shelby County voting fights, including the 2013 law that federal courts later found contained discriminatory aspects. As the fall election approaches, the practical question is not abstract: whether a shift in Sunday hours or campus sites would leave Black churchgoers and students with fewer realistic ways to vote.
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