Hundreds of North Carolina A&T State University students marched to the polls Thursday for the second time since early voting began.
The group was led through the streets of Greensboro by the Blue and Gold Marching Machine. Love Island USA winner Trinity Tatum and Marsai Martin, an actress on ABC’s Black-ish, fell close behind the band. Both are leaders with the national nonprofit initiative When We All Vote, which was founded in 2018 by Michelle Obama.
The journey took around 45 minutes. As students finally reached Union Square, now the closest early voting site, they began to chant “Bring our polls back.”
In July, the Guilford County Board of Elections denied A&T and UNC Greensboro early voting sites, despite students advocating to keep the locations they used in 2024. Neither school has had an on-campus early voting site during a nonpresidential election.
Takara Phillips, a senior studying journalism and mass communications, says she was discouraged to find out their polling site was moved off campus, but not discouraged enough to not vote.
“It was just honestly like a smack in the face. That was my thoughts walking,” she says. “Hopefully, it makes a difference in them actually switching our polling sites back to where they were.”
Sophomore Jimmie Holton helped organize the demonstration.
“That walk, it was really long, and today it was hot. That is the reality for students on campus who come from lower income backgrounds, who may not have money for a Lyft or may not have a way to get to a polling site,” he says. “That's an active barrier that's preventing them from getting to exercise their right.”
After voting, students were able to take free shuttles back to campus where they were greeted with music, games and more festivities hosted by When We All Vote. The organization says these events are shown to increase turnout by 2-4 percentage points.
This march comes a week after more than a hundred students from A&T, UNCG and Bennett College conducted their own trip to the polls, gaining national attention.