It’s time for a fact check of North Carolina politics. This week we’re looking at a claim made by former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this fall. In a recent interview with MSNOW, Cooper said officials removed an early-voting site from North Carolina A&T State University, the largest HBCU in the state. For more, Paul Specht of WRAL joined Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: Early in-person voting is a month away in North Carolina. Just how are early voting sites chosen and what, if any, changes are there to early voting this year?
Paul Specht: Many early voting sites are decided at the county level. North Carolina has 100 counties, and if a local county's elections board votes unanimously on an early voting plan, then that plan becomes set. Each board has five members. If there's even one member who dissents, then the decision is kicked up to the state elections board, who then makes the final decision for that county. This year, we had 80 counties who decided their own early voting plans unanimously and then 20 counties had disputed early voting plans that were ultimately decided by the state elections board.
This year, Republicans controlled elections boards at the state level and in every county across the state. Previously, elections boards were under control of the governor, who's been a Democrat dating back to 2017. This year, Democrats have accused Republican elections boards of trying to suppress certain voters. With Republicans in control, they're shifting the way early voting hours happen.
Republicans point out that they have more hours overall. Democrats point out that there are now fewer Sundays in which to vote early, and that's significant to them because many black voters historically vote on Sundays and they often vote Democratic.
Terry: So was there an early-voting site at North Carolina A&T that was removed? What’s the history of that school in Greensboro having an early voting site?
Specht: Well, if you hear the word “removed,” you might think that it's been a long-standing site there on campus. There was one there in 2024, and for every presidential election dating back to 2004. However, there has never been an early voting site on A&T's campus for a midterm. That's significant context here because the word “removed” implies that it was expected to be there. But in the midterms, it's never been.
Terry: What has Cooper and the school said about this claim?
Specht: Well, Cooper has pointed out the broader context. His campaign also pointed out that there's at least one A&T student who joined a lawsuit with a couple other college students trying to fight for early voting sites on their campus back in the primary. So, Cooper's camp says, ‘hey, look, the demand is there, perhaps more so than in previous years,’ pointing to that lawsuit. That lawsuit was ultimately thrown out and the early voting plans now are what they are. Ultimately, they said there was a site there in 2024. Students there who may have started their college career in 2024 may have expected one this year, and now it won't be there.
Terry: So how did you rate this claim by Roy Cooper?
Specht: We relied on comments by Guilford County's own elections director. He said the word “removed” is not the right word. He said maybe it's semantics; “not chosen” would be a better word, and certainly the word “removed” sort of implies an expectation of a site there. That's why we rated this mostly false. Our definition of mostly false is that a statement contains an element of truth, but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
These fact checks are a collaboration between PolitiFact and WRAL.
