Overview:
As 2025 draws to a close, the State Board of Elections is making plans for the mechanics of voting in early 2026 across the state.
Local Boards of Election across all 100 counties have until Friday to submit their early voting plans to the State Board. As of Monday, 79 county boards had submitted their plans.
What you need to know
The State Board of Elections is the next step for March 2026 primary plans.
“NCSBE staff will need to review and confirm the counties have met all the statutory requirements for both the unanimous and non-unanimous plans,” State Board of Elections Director of External Affairs Jason Tyson said in an email.
Of the submitted plans, only six did not have the unanimous consent of the local boards. By state law, when county boards are not unanimous, the State Board must decide.
In Guilford, Pitt, Harnett, Wayne, Craven and Cumberland counties, board members disagreed on the best course of action, leaving the final call in the hands of the State Board’s five members.
Three of the counties with non-unanimous plans have college campuses: UNC-Greensboro and NC A&T in Guilford County, East Carolina University in Pitt County and Fayetteville State University in Cumberland County.
Jackson County, home of Western Carolina University, is expected to submit a non-unanimous plan to the State Board later this week.
Last week, the Jackson County Board of Elections voted on an early voting plan for the 2026 primary that did not include a polling place on Western Carolina University’s campus.
Jackson County Board of Elections Director Amanda Allen told NC Local the county will submit its non-unanimous plan to the state on Friday, the deadline for all submissions.
She said waiting for the plan to be finalized does “compress our timeline for election prep” including precinct worker appointments and schedules, advertising and the sharing of information for voters, and site reservations.
“We are moving forward with as many tasks as possible and preparing contingency plans that we can hopefully implement quickly when an early voting plan is determined,” Allen said in an email on Dec. 15.
How does the State Board decide?
The state will perform a drive-time analysis for all of the non-unanimous submissions where county board members are proposing to use different sites, Tyson said.
During a drive-time analysis the state board will review voter registration rolls and will use NC Department of Information Technology data to evaluate the estimated drive time for voters based on available early voting sites, Allen explained.
NC politics expert and WCU professor Chris Cooper confirmed that there aren’t clear public guidelines for the drive-time analysis.
“I have not seen any official memo or communication from the State Board of Elections outlining the criteria they will use when deciding how to make decisions about early voting placement in the case of non-unanimous plans,” Cooper said in an email.
He added that he would “expect average drive-time to be one of the most important—if not the most important—criterion for the new board.”
Allen said she doesn’t expect a state visit to Jackson County to be part of that analysis.
State law also requires the State Board to “take into consideration whether the Plan for Implementation disproportionately favors any party, racial or ethnic group, or candidate.”
How many voting locations are on college campuses?
There are voting locations at 18 colleges across the state but they vary from year to year. Many boards opt not to have voting locations on college campuses during municipal election years but add the locations during years that there are presidential elections.
Find out more about the impact of campus polling places on young voters here.
How you can get involved
The details for the upcoming state board meeting haven’t been released yet. Here’s the meeting calendar.
If you want to become an election official and help work at the polls, apply here.
When all of the poll sites are finalized, find your polling place here.
What’s next
The deadline for counties to submit early voting plans is Friday, Dec. 19.
The state Board of Elections is expected to approve all of the early voting plans in early 2026. This will include decisions on the plans that are not unanimous.
Early voting for the March 2026 primary begins on February 12.
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