At NC State and throughout Wake County, groups are fighting for on-campus voting to return to the university. The Wake County Board of Elections will meet next week to decide on early voting locations for the general election.
The meeting will take place at 5 p.m. on June 30, in the Wake County Office Building at 337 S. Salisbury St. There, the university will propose a voting location at the Western Boulevard Business Services building on South Campus.
“Early voting is a very important issue for all of North Carolina,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause NC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group that voices for government reforms. “I think that in 2008, it was the first election where more people actually voted early than on Election Day and that was replicated in 2012.”
Common Cause NC will be present at the meeting, and Phillips encourages anyone interested to attend and voice his or her opinions to the Board of Elections.
According to Student Body President Paul Nolan, a senior studying materials science and engineering, having an on-campus polling place is a crucial component of civic engagement.
“It kind of astonishes me sometimes that NC State has the immense privilege of being located in Raleigh, North Carolina, a state’s capital,” Nolan said. “We have so much potential to cause so much influence with the General Assembly in our backyard. Unfortunately, we’re just not there yet, and that’s something we have to continue to push throughout the year.”
Chairman of NC State College Republicans and junior studying political science Sean Harrington believes students should have more of a voice in politics.
“My basic view is just making sure that students aren’t ignored simply as passers through Raleigh and Wake County, but actually people who have a vested interest in the community and the governance of that community,” Harrington said. “We’re not just passers through; we live here too.”
In 2012, Talley Student Union was a polling site, hosting over 16,000 voters. However, Talley was declared ineligible to be a polling location in 2014 because the building does not offer enough parking.
In the March presidential primaries, the closest polling place to the university was at Pullen Park, located near North Campus. Some argue that the park is too far for students to travel.
“For the students living in the Honors Commons, that’s a short and easy walk,” Nolan said. “But for students living at Avent Ferry, that’s a different story.”
According to Nolan, time can be a major constraint for students.
“The biggest component is that students have classes, some of them live in on-campus residence halls, their lives are on campus, and it can be a lot to ask students to travel essentially to express the right to vote,” Nolan said. “A lot of students, whether it be class or other reasons, don’t have the capability to really invest that time to go and vote.”
Harrington thinks on-campus voting is an issue that people across the political spectrum can get behind.
“It’s fairly bipartisan, to me, the fact that you have College Democrats, who really want the polling place on campus, and even College Republicans. You know, I’ve talked to a few [College Republicans] today who are very supportive of having a polling place on campus,” Harrington said. “I think it’s nice when you have an issue that surpasses party politics and goes basically in making sure that students have a say in their home.”
The Technician reached out to Luke Smith, president of NC State College Democrats and a sophomore studying political science, but as of press time did not receive a response.
Moving forward, the Student Government Association plans to play a large role in engaging students politically, according to Nolan.
“I really want to see student government as a stakeholder and a leader in this, but also using us kind of as a nexus for all of these multifaceted interests,” Nolan said. “Whether it’s College Democrats, or CSLEPS, or College Republicans or whoever is passionate about political engagement, [they] can come to us, and we can give them the resources to kind of collectively tackle this together.”