North Carolina A&T students do not have an on campus early voting site this year. So on Thursday, they marched.
When We All Vote ran its flagship Party at the Polls event with students at North Carolina A&T, the nation’s largest HBCU, joined by Marsai Martin and Trinity Tatum. A&T had on campus early vote sites in 2024. This cycle the state board took them away, leaving students with a walk of about 45 minutes each way to reach their polling place. They marched it anyway.
The event is one of nearly 700 Party at the Polls gatherings running this week ahead of Vote Early Day on Saturday, October 24, according to When We All Vote. The Michigan flagship event will be headlined by Loni Love and the Detroit Pistons.
The A&T march is not an isolated story this cycle. Students at UNC Greensboro and Bennett College have faced the same fight over campus voting access in Greensboro, and the pattern of young Black voters being made to work harder for a ballot, then showing up anyway, has become one of the defining images of the early vote in North Carolina. The state’s early vote totals have been running strong, with Black voters making up roughly a quarter of ballots cast so far.
Twelve days out from the November 3 midterms, the march is the message: access can be restricted, but turnout is a decision.
