More than half of North Carolina registered voters have already cast ballots in this year’s general election. The overwhelming majority of those voters took advantage of North Carolina’s two weeks of non-excuse early voting.
By Friday morning, early voting numbers had passed the previous record, with just over 4.2 million people voting early this year.
The previous record was set in 2020, when more than 3.6 million in North Carolina voted early. However, the state’s population has grown since then.
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While North Carolina set a nominal record by volume, just 54% of the state’s registered voters opted to early vote. That’s about five percentage points lower than the average across the past four presidential elections.
Statewide takeaways from early voting
The North Carolina State Board of Elections tracks the demographics of voters who voted early and absentee on a daily basis.
While it may be tempting to make conclusions based on the number of registered Democrats and Republicans who cast their votes early, North Carolinians have been known to split their tickets, or vote for candidates of different parties on the same ballot.
Additionally, about 38% of the state’s registered voters are unaffiliated, which offers few clues as to how they voted.
That being said, registered Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters showed in nearly equal numbers during early voting this year, each making up a third of the overall votes. Both registered Republicans and Democrats punched above their weight, while unaffiliated voters had a lower percentage turnout, which is not unusual.
In 2020, Democrats made up a higher proportion of early and absentee votes at this point in the election.
Party affiliation is just one of several variables the State Board tracks. Race, ethnicity, gender and age are other key demographic factors.
Across the entire state, white, registered Republican women turned out to vote early in the highest numbers; half a million showed up to the polls.
Second was white, registered Republican men, coming in at nearly 475,000 ballots cast. Unaffiliated white women followed in third with 397,000 votes and unaffiliated white men came next with 359,000 ballots.
Registered Democrats trailed behind. Within that bloc of voters, Black women cast 295,000 ballots, white women cast 281,000 ballots, white men cast 172,000 ballots and Black men cast 157,000.
The ordering of demographic groups mostly mirrored 2020, save for one exception. In 2020, registered Democrat Black women were the third biggest early voting block, surpassing unaffiliated white men and women.
The racial breakdown of early voting also paralleled 2020. The percentage of white voters increased by three points, while the percentage of Black voters dropped by the same amount. Together, white and Black voters made up 87% of all early voters.
Hispanic and Latino voters cast 119,794 ballots during early voting, compared to over 2.9 million cast by non-Hispanic or Latino voters. However, 1.1 million early voters opted out of selecting their ethnicity on their voter registration, so it’s unclear how many of each ethnicity actually voted. Ethnicity was not specifically tracked in 2020.
Women outpaced men with 51.7% of the early vote, which amounts to a 433,000 vote margin. That’s slightly higher than 2020, when women made up 50.8% of the early vote, with a 352,000-vote margin.
This year, 42% of early voters were between the ages of 41 and 65, with the over 65 voting bloc trailing with 29.5% of the overall early vote. Younger voters turned out less, with 26-40 year olds making up 18.9% of turnout and 18-25 year olds filling in the last 9.5%.
Helene-impacted counties punched above their weight
Western North Carolinians sent a message during early voting: they’re still here, and they want their voices to be heard.
In the 25 disaster counties, early voting turnout reached 51.5% of registered voters. Absentee turnout was 11.4%. Together, the two voting methods surpassed the state’s overall turnout rate.
“We are very proud to say that, and tremendously proud in the resilient and strong people of Western North Carolina,” State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
“… For those handful of precincts where there is no physical structure available to host voting due to storm damage, the State Board of Elections has worked with state and federal partners to set up secure tents to take the place of Election Day voting places.”
Four of those seven tents were set up in Yancey County, while Buncombe, Burke and Haywood each got one. The 20-by-66-foot festival tents have two sets of double doors, side walls, lighting tables, chairs and voting booths. They are powered with generators, and include portable restrooms and handwashing stations.
“They are monitored around the clock to ensure voting materials are secure,” Brinson Bell said.
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