Republicans on the Wake County Board of Elections rejected the NC State University student center as an early voting site for the general election, resisting the fervent pleas of speakers who wanted to keep it as a polling place.
The Talley Student Center was used for early voting in the 2012, 2018, 2020 and 2024 general elections and in several primaries, according to Gerry Cohen, a Democrat on the Wake board.
A building about a mile away will be swapped out for Talley under the early voting plan the board approved Friday.
Republicans rejected in a 3-2 vote a plan Cohen offered to keep Talley.
Republicans argued that it is too difficult for people who live off campus to find parking.
Friday marked another instance where Republicans, in high profile decisions, have refused to place early voting sites on college campuses.
Republicans took control of the state and local boards of election last year under a controversial law that stripped the governor of appointment powers and gave them to state Auditor Dave Boliek.
Donna Williams, a Republican member of the Wake board, said it will be easier for voters to park at the Business Services building off Western Boulevard, the site Republicans preferred.
“It is very easily accessible for everybody,” she said.
Speaking in support of the student center, Cohen said the 47,000 people who live, study and work at NC State make up a community as large as many Wake municipalities. The site has more available parking than another early voting site, he said, and Talley is a location familiar to voters.
“Don’t make West Raleigh voters feel like you are making their voting more difficult,” Cohen said. “Please approve the Talley site for early voting. Wake County wants this, needs this, and expects this.”
Most members of the public who spoke Friday supported early voting sites at Talley, the Southeast Raleigh YMCA, or Knightdale.
The crowd booed when Williams read a list of sites that omitted Talley.
Will Cowan, a graduate student who worked on voter engagement at NC State as an undergrad, said it was important to keep early voting at the student center.
“The most significant barrier to students voting is typically accessibility to voting sites. Talley addresses that problem,” he said.
“Research shows that people who vote in their first election – so college-age students – tend to stay more engaged and informed for the rest of their lives.”
Only one person, Joanne Empie of the Wake County Republican Party, urged the elections board to reject Talley in favor of the Business Services building.
The early voting plan without Talley won unanimous approval. If the vote had been divided, the state Board of Elections would have had to make the final decision, delaying implementation of the county’s plan.
Decisions about early voting sites have been contentious this year.
A GOP county elections board member said he was warned against voting for a campus polling site
Earlier this year, College Democrats of North Carolina and university students sued unsuccessfully after the state Board of Elections refused to open early voting sites at Western Carolina University, NC A&T State University and UNC-Greensboro for the March primary.
The WCU campus site had been used for early voting in primaries and general elections since 2016.
This month, Jay Pavey, a Republican member of the Jackson County elections board voted with Democrats to place an early voting site for the general election at WCU. Pavey said he had been threatened by members of his party with removal from the board if he voted for the campus site.
Jackson County Board of Elections Chair Bill Thompson said there was pressure from the auditor’s office for an alternative to the WCU early voting site.
Several speakers Friday talked about Boliek’s office dictating county early voting locations.
After the meeting Wake election board Chair Keith Weatherly said he’d spoken to Dallas Woodhouse, a former GOP operative whom Boliek hired to work with county elections boards. Weatherly said he and Woodhouse have known one another for years.
“We had a general discussion but there was no directive or ultimatum,” Weatherly said.
Republicans have for years wanted to strike Talley as an early voting site, he said. “As far as I can remember ever discussing voting sites in Wake County, this has been a bone of contention,” Weatherly said.
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