On Tuesday, the North Carolina Board of Elections ruled on two cases concerning democratic participation on college campuses in the state. 

Last month, the Republican-controlled Pasquotank County elections board ruled that an Elizabeth City State University senior and student government leader, Montravias King, couldn’t run for city council, because his dorm constituted a temporary residence. 

As reported in The News & Observer, Clare Barnett, the attorney from Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which represented King, argued that not being able to run for office in that ward would also have left King ineligible to vote there. However, both North Carolina case law and Supreme Court decisions have ruled that students had a right to use their university addresses for both purposes. And because of this, the North Carolina Board of Elections voted to reverse the Pasquotank County elections board decision, and affirmed the now nationally publicized student’s right to run for office. 

We at the Technician are glad to know that our dorms, in which we live for eight months a year, are not considered our temporary residences, and that we won’t have to drive over to our parents’ place, wherever that may be, to vote. 

But wait a second… 

In Watauga County, the Republican-controlled election board voted last month to eliminate an early voting site and an election-day voting precinct on the Appalachian State University campus. Opponents of such measures have pointed out that it would be to the advantage of Republicans to make it difficult for students to vote, as students typically vote Democrat. Adversaries have considered such measures, associated with Republicans, an affront to the rights of students. Proponents have pointed to the needlessness of having an early voting site on campus when another one at the country elections office is located less than a mile away. 

In this case, the students did not have their way the Board of Elections did not overturn this decision from Watauga County, likely paving the way for more such changes where Republicans control elections boards. However, for the student interest, the Watauga County elections board did rescind recent plans to combine three precincts, including the A.S.U. campus, into one, which would have created “the state’s third-largest voting precinct at a site that has only 35 parking spaces to accommodate 9,300 voters,” according to The N&O. 

Overall, we’re glad that the Elections Board respected students’ right to vote and run for office where they study. But it would have been nice if it had actually retained the feasibility of exercising this right.