On June 12th, Republicans on the Wake County Board of Elections voted 3-2 to remove NC State University’s Talley Student Center as an early voting site. The student center has served as an early voting location during the 2012, 2018, 2020, and 2024 general elections.
The move is the latest in a series of decisions eliminating on-campus polling locations across the state, following similar removals at North Carolina A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Western Carolina University.
Early voting will instead take place at NC State’s Business Services Center, about 1.7 miles from campus. Republican board member Donna Williams argued the new location is “very easily accessible for everybody.” However, turnout data tells a different story. During the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, more than 21,000 people voted early at the Talley Student Center, compared with about 11,000 at the Business Services Center.
Democrats and voting rights advocates argue that moving the polling place farther from campus will make it more difficult for students to vote. Young voter participation has already declined since 2020. According to CIRCLE’s National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) 53% of college students voting in 2024, down from 66% in 2020.
“The most significant barrier to students voting is typically accessibility to voting sites. Talley addressed that problem,” shared Will Cowan, a graduate student who previously worked on voter engagement at NC State.
Voting sites changing or shutting down are not anomalies in the United States. According to ABC, more than one in five polling places have closed over the last decade. In 2012, there were over 116,000 polling sites, and in 2022, that number dropped to fewer than 89,000.
Beyond voter suppression amongst younger individuals, the gradual decline in polling places highlights a systemic racial issue. The locations with a gradual decline in polling places are Texas and Georgia, where communities of color are prevalent. Texas, where the population is 39% Latino and 12% Black, has closed 750 polling places since 2013. Georgia, which has a Black population of about 30%, has closed more than 200 during the same period.
For many voters, these changes create additional barriers to participation. Georgia resident Wanda Jenkins, whose polling place was relocated, said she now has to drive an additional seven miles to vote. “It would’ve been better served in my community if [the voting poll] had stayed here,” she shared.
Moving polling places farther from the communities they serve makes voting less accessible and can reduce participation. As voter turnout among young Americans continues to decline, ensuring that polling locations remain convenient and accessible is essential to protecting broad participation in elections.