More than 100 students from North Carolina A&T State University and UNC Greensboro marched to the polls to mark the first day of early voting Thursday.
Dozens of A&T students gathered on campus in 85-degree heat.
North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Anita Earls, state Sen. Gladys Robinson and state House Minority Leader Robert Reives fired students up to vote and encouraged them to get their friends to the polls too.
"You turned out when they took your voting site away," Reives said. "You need to do your duty today, and then you need to make sure that any student that didn't get in their vote today, you get them there."
The demonstration comes after the Guilford County Board of Elections denied both N.C. A&T and UNCG on-campus early voting sites, which they had used in 2024, but never for midterm elections.
It took A&T students about 45 minutes to reach Union Square — now the closest early polling place. Some sections of sidewalk were missing or obstructed by branches, forcing people into the street.
At Union Square, Dasiyah Weiters, a first-year student at UNCG, got in line to vote. She had joined the walk after a class.
"This is my first time voting, so I want to make sure that my voice is getting heard," she said.
The line extended outside the building. Student organizer Xavier Jones said he hopes the turnout sends a message to election officials.
"We will come and make our voices clear, no matter how far you push a polling site off of our campus, no matter how far you drag it up the street, no matter if you put it all the way on the other side of Greensboro, we will organize. We will march," Jones said.
Early voting ends Oct. 31.