North Carolina students face voting barriers over ID rules and polling sites

Voter access for students in North Carolina is facing challenges due to ID requirements and the removal of on-campus polling locations. More than half of the state’s community colleges have not received state approval for their student IDs to be used for voting in the upcoming midterm elections. While the University of North Carolina System and several large private universities have secured approval, approximately 341,000 community college students may lack a state-approved ID, though they can still use driver’s licenses or passports.

In Greensboro, students from North Carolina A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Bennett College staged a march to cast their ballots after the Guilford County Board of Elections denied requests for on-campus early voting sites. Students marched to the Union Square Campus, a downtown location, reporting long walks and waits of up to three hours. The board opted for the downtown site as a compromise rather than approving the specific campus locations requested by activists.