On America’s 250th birthday, we should be honoring freedom and democracy by making voting as accessible as possible. As such we present this "Rowan Resolve."

Resolved, that we, the voters of Rowan County, will continue to maintain and support a call for Early Voting plans that includes all Saturdays and Sundays, within the  starting and ending dates of the Early Voting period,  a calendar that benefits ALL voters in this year of 2026 and moving forward. This is a voter issue, not a red or blue partisan one. 

Our Rowan Resolve nods to our heritage. The original Rowan Resolves of 1774, although not a direct call for independence as occurred in 1776, criticized both the political and economic policies of the British government that threatened to take away colonial liberties. We, the people of Rowan County, continue an American tradition as we embrace and publicly confirm our independence as citizens.   

Rowan Residents, "Be a Original” (our Rowan County motto) and add your “John Hancock” signature to our 2026 Rowan Resolve petition to protect our voting freedoms and to confirm that public feedback is a critical part of a functioning democracy. 

For those new to this journey to maintain weekend voting in Rowan County that includes Saturdays and Sundays - 

1. Early voting is often the most popular form of voting in Rowan and the percentage of early voters is increasing. Over 70% of Rowan County voters voted early in 2024, compared to 64% in 2020 and 59% in 2016. (1 https://dl.ncsbe.gov/?prefix=ENRS/ - under “history_stats” file)
2. Midterm elections have also shown a near majority of early voters, with 47% in2018 and 48% in 2020 choosing that option.2 ( https://dl.ncsbe.gov/?prefix=ENRS/ (under “history_stats” file)
3. The number of early voters in Rowan County will likely continue to trend upward, particularly during another General Election. In fact, Rowan County voters are more likely to vote during the weekend.
4. Since 2018, the rates of voting have been higher on weekend early voting days than on weekdays.3 (https://dl.ncsbe.gov/?prefix=ENRS/
5. Weekend hours are consistently higher in voters-per-hour than weekdays, meaning that weekend voting sees higher voter traffic than weekday voting.
6. In 2018 in particular, when there was only one day of weekend early voting, weekend voting saw more than double the voters-per-hour compared to weekday voting: this means that for every hour of weekend voting offered, more than twice as many people voted per hour compared to a weekday hour.
7. This DOES NOT show that all weekend voters shift their plans to vote on the one weekend day—it shows that people are more likely to turn out to vote on the weekends, and eliminating weekend voting options means that many people may lose out on an opportunity to vote if they cannot accommodate the one weekend day of voting.