Connor Smith
Early voters cast their ballots on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at Talley Student Union. Early voting will occur in Talley room 3285 through Nov. 3.
The Talley Student Union voting center has only seen a little over 10,600 ballots cast as of October 31, which is the second lowest number of the ten early voting sites in Wake County.
According to the Wake County Early Voting website, only 10,652 ballots have been cast in Talley. Jess Errico, student body president and fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, said she thought the site could have been used more by students and the Raleigh community.
“[For] the students who utilize the site, it’s been well-received as being quick, in-and-out, convenient, easy to use,” Errico said. “However, it is a very underutilized site.”
Errico mentioned some factors that may deter students from voting.
“The ones that I’m hearing more often are not that students don’t want to vote or are not going to vote, but that they just aren’t ready to vote, they just haven’t done their research yet,” Errico said.
This new location has been the subject of heavy debate. Talley was an early voting location in the 2012 election that saw over 16,000 early voting ballots cast.
Brian Mathis, the associate director at Leadership and Civic Engagement, said that he hoped this election would prove the site’s viability.
“The Talley Student Union site was a pretty contentious decision,” Mathis said. “It required the state Board of Elections to weigh in. I’m hopeful that the efforts we’re making now really demonstrate that this is a viable site and a service to the community.”
Mathis mentioned that having early voting at Talley is a lot better than the Creative Services Building, which offered early voting during the 2016 election.
“In 2016, we had an early voting site for the presidential election by the McKimmon Center; it’s called the Creative Services Building,” Mathis said. “We had to spend a lot of effort to inform students, faculty and staff what that building actually was, and where to go. I think the centralized location of being here in Talley is just much more accessible and convenient.”
Errico said she believes that the early voting center provides a valuable service.
“It allows for students who have that fluctuating schedule to make sure that they’re able to get in, and for faculty and staff who maybe only teach Mondays and Wednesdays or students who only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Errico said.
The Talley voting center is important not only because of the service it provides, but also because it demonstrates that the site will be used, according to Errico.
“In the future, if you’re looking at things maybe like a presidential election, where those decisions become more high-stakes and politically fueled, we were hoping to be able to have numbers to back it up and say we’ve demonstrated that we will use this site; let’s make it a routine location,” Errico said.
Errico also pushed the fact that the center offers one-stop voting.
“Another misconception about the site is that if you’re not registered, you can’t vote,” Errico said. “But the really great thing about this site is that you can register on the spot, and you can cast your ballot immediately after.”
Students looking to register should bring an ID and proof of residence. More information can be found on NC State’s Pack the Polls website. The Talley site closes after Nov. 3, and will not be open on Election Day.