The L. Richardson Preyer Federal Courthouse in Greensboro where on Thursday a federal judge heard arguments in the appeal of the state Board of Elections decisions to reject voting locations at NC A&T State University, UNC-Greensboro, and Western Carolina University. (Photo by Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)
GREENSBORO — U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen on Thursday pressed a lawyer for North Carolina college students who want early voting sites on their campuses on whether locations would be available on short notice.
College Democrats of North Carolina and students from three college campuses appealed state Board of Elections decisions last month rejecting early voting locations at NC A&T State University, UNC-Greensboro, and Western Carolina University in Jackson County. They want the court to order polling sites open on those campuses for early voting, which starts Feb. 12.
The students contend that denying universities early voting sites is a targeted attempt to limit young people’s opportunities to vote. Most students don’t have cars, making it difficult for them to travel to off-campus polling places, their lawsuit said.
Osteen did not rule from the bench, but said he would have an order by Saturday or Sunday to give the losing side time to appeal.
Osteen questioned Uzoma Nkwonta, a lawyer representing the students, for more than an hour Thursday afternoon. He emphasized that there is no evidence that sites at NC A&T and UNC-Greensboro would be available, and questioned whether the Greensboro schools were losing anything because they have not previously had early voting locations for midterm primaries.
A&T and UNC-Greensboro had early voting sites in the 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential election years, and in the 2020 and 2024 primaries.
”What have they taken away?” Osteen asked. “It’s not 2020 or 2024.”
WCU has hosted an early voting site for every primary and general election since November 2016.
Nkwonta took a view he said was more “holistic.”
The absence of campus voting sites “impairs the ability of students to access the ballot,” he said.
The availability of a potential polling place at Western Carolina is clearer, with the university affirming in December it would have space.
Without the campus site, the closest early voting location to Western Carolina is nearly two miles away. Transportation is a problem for students without cars, so they would have to walk to the recreation center on a route that includes a four-lane highway.
Western Carolina had offered its Health and Human Sciences building, which is about the same distance from the center of campus as the recreation center and is also off the highway, said Patrick Flanagan, a lawyer for the Jackson County Board of Elections.
The difference, Nkwonta said, is that free shuttles are available to take students to and from the HHS building.
Phil Strach, a lawyer for the state elections board, told Osteen that the board had to take a broad view and not just consider “the personal preferences of students or young voters.”
An order adding polling places to an election that is already underway would be disruptive, he said.
Strach is the state GOP and Republican legislative leaders’ go-to lawyer in elections and redistricting matters. In the past, lawyers with the state Attorney General’s office have represented the board. A mini-budget the legislature passed last year gave the board $1.5 million to hire private lawyers.
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