North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper recently claimed during an MSNOW interview that Republican election officials stripped an early-voting location from a prominent historically Black university in the state. However, that assertion leaves out important historical context regarding how polling places have been utilized at the institution.
Cooper, a Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis. The high-stakes race against Republican candidate Michael Whatley—along with Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin—is widely viewed as a potential tipping point for control of the Senate.
During the recent interview, Cooper argued that voting access is actively being scaled back across the state.
“A lot of people in North Carolina, particularly on college campuses, are having an ‘I’ll show you’ attitude. ‘You’re not going to take our vote away. We’ll show you,’” Cooper stated in a video clip shared by his campaign on social media.
Roy on midterm voting restrictions: I think you’re seeing a lot of people in North Carolina, particularly on college campuses, are having an “I’ll show you” attitude. “You’re not going to take our vote away. We’ll show you.”
I went to North Carolina A&T State University, the… pic.twitter.com/KkCVzASOKs
— Team Roy Cooper (@TeamCooperNC) August 26, 2026
“I went to North Carolina A&T State University, the largest HBCU in North Carolina. They removed that ballot box from their campus, but the students are marching to the nearest polling place and they’re spreading the word that it’s really important for them to get out and vote in this election because our country needs a course correction,” he added.
Did officials genuinely “remove” a voting location from the NC A&T campus?
Not quite.
While the university did host an early-voting site during the 2024 presidential election, it is not serving as one this year. For juniors and seniors who cast ballots right on campus two years ago, the absence of a site certainly feels like a loss.
Even so, Cooper’s use of the word “removed” is misleading because he omitted a crucial detail: the campus has never hosted an early-voting location during a midterm election cycle, nor was one ever planned for this year’s contest.
The Selection Process for Early-Voting Sites
Under North Carolina law, local plans for early-voting locations are first determined by each county’s five-member board of elections. If a board reaches a unanimous vote, the plan is locked in for the election.
When county boards fail to reach a unanimous consensus, the final decision falls to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. For the current election cycle, 80 counties reached unanimous agreements, while 20 experienced stalemates.
Following a 2024 legislative shift that moved authority away from Democratic Governor Josh Stein, every county elections board and the state board currently hold Republican majorities. In the 20 contested counties, Democratic members pushed back against GOP proposals that reduced campus voting access, eliminated polling places in heavy Black neighborhoods, or closed polls on days data indicates Black voters favor.
Guilford County—home to North Carolina A&T State University, the nation’s largest public four-year HBCU—was among the counties requiring state intervention due to a partisan split.
While Republican members of the Guilford County elections board voted against placing an early-voting site at NC A&T, Democratic members advocated for its inclusion.
In late August, the state elections board finalized an early-voting blueprint for Guilford County that excluded sites at local colleges and universities entirely.
Critics argue that omitting these sites deliberately disenfranchises young Black voters, who heavily lean toward Democratic candidates, thereby offering a partisan advantage in closely contested swing-state races.
“This is calculated,” NCA&T student Olu Rouse told WRAL earlier this year. “This is a strategy, and it’s actively trying to suppress our votes.”
The Site’s Background
Charlie Collicutt, the elections director for Guilford County, noted that the county has never established an early-voting site at NC A&T—or any other college campus—during a midterm election. Data provided to PolitiFact by Collicutt illustrates the historical usage of campuses for early voting.
Guilford County initially introduced an early-voting site at NC A&T during the 2004 presidential election, later adding UNC-Greensboro in 2012. Since that time, both campuses have consistently hosted early-voting sites during presidential election cycles, according to Collicutt.
Addressing Cooper’s remarks, Collicutt stated, “’Removed’ isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s semantics, but ‘not chosen’ is more accurate.”
In defense of Cooper’s comments, his campaign emphasized that students frequently cite schedule conflicts and transportation hurdles as reasons they need these sites directly on campus. Notably, an NC A&T student joined an unsuccessful legal challenge earlier this year aimed at forcing early-voting sites onto three college campuses ahead of the state’s March primaries.
More broadly, Democrats argue that GOP-controlled election boards are systematically suppressing Black voter turnout by restricting polling access, pointing specifically to the elimination of Sunday early-voting hours in select counties. Conversely, Republicans maintain that these adjustments assist boards struggling to staff weekend polling operations, noting that the state has increased overall early-voting hours.
“Roy believes voting is a fundamental right and that efforts that make it harder to vote are wrong,” Cooper’s campaign stated, adding, “The newly reconstituted and Republican-dominated State Board of Elections has waged a campaign to silence North Carolinians at the ballot box, but Roy will continue fighting to protect the right to vote as our next Senator.”
Our Verdict
Cooper claimed that North Carolina election officials “removed” an early-voting site from North Carolina A&T State University.
However, the county’s elections director asserted that “removed” is an inaccurate description.
Although the historically Black university featured an early-voting site during the 2024 general election and lacks one for the current midterms, county officials point out that this is standard practice: Guilford County has never operated early-voting sites on college campuses during midterm elections.
Because Cooper’s claim contains a kernel of truth while omitting essential context that changes the overall picture, it is rated Mostly False.