Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, voting rights advocates collected the stories of North Carolina A&T students about voting and how access to the ballot box impacts them.
Gathered in the General Classroom Building from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for a North Carolina Student Civic Rally, a student-centered voting rights forum.
The event comes at a particularly relevant moment as North Carolina A&T, the nation’s largest HBCU— alongside many other colleges across the state, faces a significant change in voting access. The university had an early voting site in 2024 on its Greensboro campus but will not have one for the 2026 midterms.
Hosted by Fair Elections Center, alongside Fair Elections Center’s Campus Vote Project, Protect Ours, and North Carolina A&T NAACP, the rally gave students a platform to share firsthand experiences with voter registration, early voting, and barriers to accessing the ballot.
Fair Elections Center’s President and CEO Rebekah Caruthers addressed the fact that the last time the Voting Rights Act was under review was 25 years ago. And now it is under debate this year.
“This is the first full election where we, the voters, have no protections,” said Carruthers.
She also stressed the importance of college students using their voices to impact change and that they have everything they need to do so.
“We need your voices,” she said. “And it’s going to take all of us together to make this country be what it’s supposed to be.”
Student testimony gathered during the forum was recorded and, in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, packaged for submission to the congressional record to help inform future voting rights legislation. Topics included:
How the loss of an on-campus early voting site at the nation’s largest HBCU creates new barriers to the ballot, making it harder for students and the surrounding community to make their voices heard.
Why early voting locations often change between presidential and midterm elections, including who makes those decisions and how it shapes access to the ballot for underserved communities.
Why young people’s voices belong on the congressional record, and how their accounts can give lawmakers a clearer picture of how voting policies affect people on the ground.
Olu Rouse, “We wanted to gather students together to hear their voices and share our experiences with this issue and the trouble we’ve had trying to cast our ballots in elections this year.”
Tanya Clay-House, a consultant with the Southern Poverty Law Center, noted that knowing and understanding the history of the Voting Rights Act is important.
“We’re doing this because there is a need for your voices to be heard. We don’t want the past to repeat itself,” said Clay-House.
She added that the reauthorization of VRA in 2006, it was under Bush’s administration and was a unanimous vote in Congress.
“We thought this was something that everyone should be proud of that we’re ensuring the right to vote,” she said. “And now we’re here at a time when there is not a desire to protect the right to vote. We are here to make sure that that is not the history that is written here in America.”
Logan Wilson, a junior Agricultural Business major and seventh generation farmer from Charlotte, North Carolina shared his experience voting at A&T. His first time voting was in the 2024 election in the Dudley building on campus. He also shared how having a voting site on campus mitigated the need for transportation, especially when new college students rarely have their own cars.
“I learned that it’s not just checking names in a box. I see how our state legislature decisions affect my family’s life on a daily basis,” said Wilson. “Having a polling place right on campus definitely encouraged me more to cast a ballot.”
For other students, 2026 will be their first time voting in an election.
Jaelle Garvin, freshman political science major, will be her first election. A polling site on campus encourages civic engagement amongst college students.
“Students need to understand that voting for leaders is not just for the laws,” she said. “First time voters don’t understand how voting can affect the little things; it can affect their housing, or the food they have access to on campus.”
Early voting starts on Thursday, October 15 and ends Saturday, October 31 at 3 p.m. General Election Day is November 3, 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
