College students in swing states rally against off-campus voting sites, student ID bans
Students at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C., begin a 40-minute walk to the nearest off-campus early polling site on Oct. 22, 2026. Election officials declined to put an early campus voting location at the school despite protests. (Photo by Elisha Brown/Stateline)
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Led by members of the marching band and Aggie and Aggietha, the North Carolina A&T State University mascots, hundreds of students at the nation's largest historically Black university walked 40 minutes from campus to the nearest early polling site on a recent afternoon.
They started the journey with a pep rally, watched over by 15-foot bronze statues of the four students who led sit-ins at the Woolworth's Counter in downtown Greensboro to protest segregation during the civil rights movement.
"There's a legacy that's set out before us, with the A&T Four, with Jesse Jackson, and all of them being Aggies. When a fight comes, it's a matter of how, and not if, we're going to take up the fights," said Shia Rozier, a 22-year-old senior who has led efforts to get a polling site on campus.
Rozier and other student leaders around the country are pushing to make voting more accessible to college students. Students have protested against laws and decisions from local election officials that they say could make casting ballots harder, including off-campus polling sites and bans on student IDs when voting.
In Greensboro, nearly 370 voters cast ballots at the early polling location students visited Oct. 22, according to Guilford County election data . It's also the nearest early location for thousands of other students at University of North Carolina-Greensboro and Bennett College.
"Not having a voting poll on site is obviously not ideal, but like we got to make a change some way, so we worked through hardship and voted," said Lathan Nance, an 18-year-old A&T student who voted for the first time last week.
Stateline spoke with college students from three swing states — New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas — who are rallying against barriers to voting during the midterm elections.
They are marching to the polls, organizing rides to polling sites and canvassing on Election Day. Several said they are looking to break misconceptions about Gen Z .
"They think we don't have a voice, so we just have to prove them wrong," Nance said.
Calls for more midterm polling sites in North Carolina
Students at three North Carolina universities — NC A&T, Western Carolina University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro — and a college Democrats group filed a federal lawsuit in January against state and county election officials over a lack of early voting sites at their campuses for the midterm primaries.
The plaintiffs said off-campus early polling locations burden those who lack transportation, have disabilities or limited financial resources. They accused the defendants of violating the First, 14th and 26th amendments, the latter of which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and said voting rights should not be "denied or abridged" based on age.
A federal judge in February denied their request for a temporary injunction against moving early voting sites, noting in an order that federal courts have a precedent to stray away from intervening in state election laws near an election.
Jason Tyson, the director of external affairs at the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said those schools did not host midterm early voting sites in previous years, and the county election boards decided polling locations were not needed on those campuses.
"There's a lot of confusion and probably misinformation regarding this topic," said Tyson.
"The correct thing is that during every midterm and general election, voting sites expand and contract," he said. "The general election is a much bigger contest and bigger event to handle, so of course there are going to be more voting sites and more interest during a presidential year."
Rozier said the denial of an on-campus early polling site after protests and lawsuits was difficult, but she's proud of her peers and the marches . "I think it shows the Board of Elections doesn't get to decide whether we get to vote, whether they're deciding where we're going to vote," she said.
UNC-G and NC A&T have on-campus precincts for Election Day.
Rides to the polls in key Texas county
Last year, local election officials removed the University of Texas, Arlington as a polling site. Now, students have to walk about 20 minutes to a courthouse to cast a ballot during the early voting period and on Election Day, according to Andres Morales, the university's student body president. The city has an on-demand rideshare service but lacks public transit.
"UTA has frequently hosted voting since 2012 and is equipped to provide a secure voting location that meets all state and county requirements," Jeff Caplan, a spokesperson for the school, wrote in a statement to Stateline.
The Tarrant County Election Administration did not respond to requests for comment.
The county is considered a battleground because voters in the Republican-leaning area have supported Democratic candidates in recent elections.
Morales said there was little protest when the polling site was taken away ahead of an election on constitutional amendments in November 2025, but added that students are more passionate about voting during the midterms.
"I think it's started a fire in the students, a movement for students to go out and start voting more and work with other organizations to help students vote," said Morales, 28.
He said student leaders are working with various organizations and the city to shuttle students from campus to the closest election site during the early voting period and on Election Day. Students are also planning to march to the polls Friday, the last day of early voting in Texas.
Student ID ban in New Hampshire
In August, the voting rights group Open Democracy sued New Hampshire election officials in federal court over a new law that banned student IDs as proof of identity at the polls. The case was fast-tracked to the U.S. Supreme Court after a district judge enacted a temporary injunction on the ban's enforcement.
The court upheld New Hampshire's law, writing in an unsigned order that lower courts shouldn't alter election rules on the eve of an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
"The Supreme Court's decision is an important victory for our efforts to defend those laws and prevent last-minute court orders from creating uncertainty for voters and election officials," New Hampshire Republican Attorney General John Formella said in a statement .
Raevan Granfield, a 19-year-old at Keene State College, said the Supreme Court decision "heavily disenfranchises a group of people that already are facing a lot of blows in New Hampshire."
The state is one of just three, alongside Alabama and Mississippi, that do not allow early voting.
Granfield is voting absentee because they plan to canvas on Election Day with New Hampshire Youth Movement, a progressive advocacy group. But they said a lot of students don't know about that option and cannot get to the polls because of classes.
Three states — Florida, Indiana and New Hampshire — have explicit bans on student IDs, but the Indiana law is blocked by the courts and the Florida statute does not take effect until January . About a dozen states do not consider student ID as a valid way to prove identity when voting, according to the Campus Vote Project , a nonprofit organization that encourages voting.
Yael Bromberg, an American University adjunct law professor and expert on youth voting rights, said the rise of student ID bans creates voter confusion.
"In some of these states, it's very clear that the rollbacks are simply to target and disenfranchise youth voters," she said.
Stateline reporter Elisha Brown can be reached at ebrown@stateline.org .
