Early voting in North Carolina for the upcoming election begins Oct. 17, and NC State’s campus offers students and Wake County residents an accessible and convenient option to cast their ballots ahead of election day at the heart of NC State’s campus. 

Talley Student Union will serve as an early voting site, open to any registered Wake County voter, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 2. The site will be available on the second floor of the building, next to Port City Java.

Gerry Cohen, a Wake County Board of Elections member, said the county is committed to accessibility. 

“Wake County has about 850,000 registered voters, the largest county in the state, and we try to run an election that can be of service to voters and candidates,” Cohen said. “We have early voting that runs the whole 17 days. It’s going to be at 22 sites in Wake County, the most we’ve ever had.” 

Will Cowan, a fourth-year studying political science and co-leader of Pack the Polls, an organization focused on voter engagement and communication, said without early voting, he wouldn’t be able to vote at all.

“I have stuff all day Tuesdays,” Cowan said. “Even though I do all this work to promote early voting and civic engagement, I wouldn’t be able to take part myself.”

To vote early, individuals must be registered to vote in the county where their site is located and have an approved ID, such as a driver’s license from any state, passport, approved student ID or state-issued ID.

Those with an NC driver’s license can register to vote online before Oct. 11.

Director of the Wake County Board of Elections Olivia McCall said if students miss the online registration deadline they can register in person during the early voting period.

“One of the positive parts of early voting is because it does give you that option, starting on the 17th through that Saturday before Election Day and you can actually register and vote at the same time,” McCall said. “It gives another opportunity for voters that may have missed that voter registration deadline.”

Address changes can also be made at early voting sites. Neither of these adjustments are available to voters on Election Day.

“It’s probably the one issue students face in the spring,” Cohen said. “For instance, a lot of students voted in the primary, but chances are from one academic year to another, a quarter and a half of students have moved to another address. In early voting, you can update your address within Wake County.” 

Proof of address is required for registration or address changes made during in-person early voting, such as on an ID or a utility bill. On-campus students can use a printed copy of their MyPack portal as proof. 

Wake County has 212 Election Day precincts and 181 different possible ballots based on district. Every early voting site has every version of the ballot available.

While this might be overwhelming, Cohen said students can see a sample of their ballot by going to the State Board of Elections website.

“If you feel like you need to do research, you can see your ballot in advance online,” Cohen said. “We don’t post all the different ballots on the wall [on site.] If you don’t look in advance, your first sight of it will be when it’s handed to you.”

Miroslava Colan, a graduate assistant of the student leadership and engagement office in the Civic Engagement Office, said Pack the Polls offers ways for students to experience voting before the official election through “voting toolkit” sessions.

“It got initiated last year with the primary election because many students had many doubts about what they need to vote,” Colan said. “The main objective is to [teach] students [about] different voting requisites and methods that they need to go to the polls.”

Students can access voting toolkit sessions through the Pack the Polls website or the University calendar. Sessions last 45 minutes.

For a third option of voting, McCall said using absentee or mail-in ballots works.

“If you’re not going to be here during the early voting period, or you can’t make it, or maybe you just don’t want to come in contact with lines, you could vote absentee,” McCall said.

McCall said early voters can have every confidence in the security of their vote. Each ballot cast goes into a tabulator but does not actually get counted until when polls close on Election Day. 

“You can actually see the closing of the polls, or the machines that are used at the early voting sites, actually at our office in a live viewing,” McCall said.

Colan said that whichever method is chosen, it’s important to vote.

“As a person who escaped from a dictatorial and authoritarian regime like Venezuela, personally, I think that, from a person whose right to vote was taken away, the right to vote is one of the roots of democracy,” Colan said. “And if we are not participating, then we will not be able to request a change.”

Talley Student Union is not an Election Day site. Students can view Pack the Polls’s website for more details about operating hours, materials and how to best prepare.