With fewer than 50 days until early voting sites open their doors, several North Carolina counties are dropping Sunday voting from their schedules. 

The statewide shift comes as North Carolina prepares for the 2026 midterm election, with in-person early voting scheduled from Oct. 15 through Oct. 31.

According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, county election boards are required to unanimously decide on their early voting schedule. Otherwise, the state election board steps in to resolve the dispute. 

Kevin Harrison, chair of the Alamance County Board of Elections, said the county’s board unanimously decided to maintain the schedule used in 2024, including Sunday voting.

While other counties are eliminating Sunday hours, Alamance County will be open for voters to cast their ballots on Sunday, Oct. 25 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“We want to have that option for people who tend to take advantage, I guess, of that particular time and day of the week,” Harrison said.

The State Board of Elections has approved schedules that eliminate Sunday voting in counties including Anson, Chatham, Columbus and Greene, according to NC Newsline.  Unlike Alamance County, these local boards could not agree on an early voting schedule, leading the state board to step in. 

The changes in schedules have drawn attention from voting rights advocates.

“Sunday voting is an important voting option, particularly for Black voters,” said Mikayla Massey, democracy and economy program manager for the North Carolina Black Alliance, in a statement to Elon News Network. 

She said Sunday voting supports traditions such as “Souls to the Polls,” in which church communities organize group trips to voting sites after Sunday services.

Massey also said Sunday voting can provide an option for people whose work or caregiving responsibilities make voting during the week more difficult.

According to U.S. Census data from 2025, over 22% of Alamance County is Black, and the North Carolina State Board of Elections reports 24,487 Black registered voters in the county. 

Harrison said Alamance County has considered those voters when deciding to keep its Sunday hours. 

“One of the discussions that we always have is trying to make sure that folks who particularly like to vote after doing the church are able to,” Harrison said.

The county’s Sunday hours are scheduled only in the afternoon because many voters attend church in the morning, Harrison said.

“I know from past discussions that really, the turnout has been in our window that we have,” Harrison said. “There has not been, or at least in the past, a huge amount of turnout on Sunday mornings.”

Still, Harrison said turnout numbers are not the only thing they take into consideration when deciding whether to offer Sunday voting.

Harrison said county election staff track turnout data and provide information to the board when members make decisions about early voting schedules. Harrison said that the data is what allows their board to come to conclusions about the schedule. 

“It’s certainly not something that I would want to go away,” Harrison said.

The debate over Sunday voting comes as counties across North Carolina make decisions about how to structure the 17-day early voting period. 

Harrison said the Alamance County Board of Elections has not had the same disagreement over Sunday voting that has occurred in other counties. He said board members have been in agreement about maintaining the Sunday option throughout the process.

“It really has not been contentious in our board,” Harrison said.

For Alamance County voters, Sunday will remain one of the available opportunities to vote early this fall. Voters can cast ballots at any early voting site in their county during the early voting period.