Federal judge rules against college students seeking on-campus voting sites

Kyle Ingram, The News & Observer on Feb 8, 2026

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A federal judge on Sunday ruled against a coalition of college students from three North Carolina universities — including the nation’s largest HBCU — who sought to compel the state to host early voting sites on their campuses.

The judge, William Osteen Jr., an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote that it would be potentially impossible for the court to force universities to open early voting sites on such short notice, given that in-person voting begins this coming week.

“That the universities hosted early voting sites in prior elections ... is one thing,” he wrote. “Whether they are able or willing to do so now, only days away from the state of the early voting period, is another.”

Students from Western Carolina University, UNC Greensboro and NC A&T State University sued the state in late January after election officials rejected their efforts to secure on-campus early voting sites for the March 3 primary election.

Their lawsuit contended that the Republican-led State Board of Elections ignored students’ pleas and “brushed aside urgent warnings that their decisions would disproportionately burden young and Black voters and denigrated students who advocated for their rights.”

Separate from the practicability question, Osteen wrote that plaintiffs were not likely to succeed on the merits of their claims and that “this court does not find the burdens on plaintiffs to be severe.”

While all the universities in question have hosted early voting sites in recent elections, WCU is the only campus to have had a site during the last comparable election: the 2022 primary.

The state board’s Republicans, who outnumber Democrats 3 to 2, agreed with local Republican election officials from each county who argued that the campus sites were not practical due to cost, parking or geography.

The vote prompted a brief protest from NC A&T students, who had come to the Raleigh meeting in support of early voting sites on the campus of the historically Black university.

After students confronted board members with signs, board Chair Francis De Luca threatened to call the police on them.

In addition to rejecting some campus voting sites, the newly composed boards have also reduced Sunday voting statewide, even as they’ve increased the total number of early voting sites.

And while the votes against WCU, UNCG and A&T have drawn significant attention, an N&O analysis of early voting plans found that North Carolina will have more total on-campus polling sites this March than it did in the 2022 primary election.

When counting community colleges, there will be 10 on-campus early voting sites this year, compared to nine in 2022.

In-person early voting begins Thursday.