> Black students march 45 minutes while shouting "SHUT IT DOWN!" to vote early after Baggers close their polling place.

After simultaneous rallies held by students on the campuses of UNCG and N.C. A&T students marched to Union Square on Thursday, the first day of early voting, to cast their ballots.

Holding up "It's About Us," and "They close polling sites, we keep showing up anyway" signs, they chanted "This is what democracy looks like."

The Guilford Board of Elections earlier this year declined to add early voting sites for the November elections at each of the schools — A&T is the largest historically black college in the country — that both students and local activists requested.

According to the Board of Elections' early voting daily tally, more than 300 votes were cast at Union Square that day.

That's despite some students having to leave early to get to jobs or back to class after three hours of waiting in line, said Kema Leonard, a local Democratic organizer.

"It shouldn't have been that hard," said Leonard, who also had a three-hour wait. "At one point, the staffers said they had run out of registration forms. It almost proved our point that we need our own sites. They weren't ready."

The students were inspired before they left campus. Students from Bennett College and other schools marched with them.

"We are here to make our voices heard," Jade Dwyer, vice president of UNC Greensboro College Democrats, told the crowd at her campus.

Students at A&T offered similar motivation.

"They are betting that you are too tired, too apathetic and have no attention span ... but we are here," Xavier Jones, political affairs director for the N.C. A&T College Democrats, said during the campus rally.

The elections board voted to add the Union Square Campus, a downtown Greensboro health care education center and collaboration between A&T, UNCG and Guilford Technical Community College, as a compromise.

To walk to Union Square from the UNCG or A&T, they had to maneuver gaps in the sidewalk and poison ivy along the path. State Sen. Natalie Murdock, who is from Greensboro , came back to walk with the marchers. She represents Chatham and Durham counties.

"I took the 45-to-50-minute walk with them, and there are no words," Murdock said of the marchers' determination. "They were amazing. They were positive."

Many voted for the first time.

N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and N.C. House Minority Leader Robert Reives spoke at A&T, and N.C. Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton and Judge Toby Hampson took part at UNCG.

"This Aggie Mom is super proud of the students at NCAT," wrote Angel Ratt on social media, with video of the march attached. "Board of Elections removed their Early Voting Polling location. These young people marched and cast their vote."

https://greensboro.com/news/local/gover … 18061.html

"Many voted for the first time."