- “We encourage all voters who have not yet cast their ballot to do so. There is still time. Let’s shatter 2020’s record turnout,” said Patrick Gannon, Public Information Office for NCSBE.
More than 3 million ballots, or approximately 40% of registered voters, have cast their ballot during early voting as of noon on Tuesday. North Carolina has about 7.8 million registered voters, of which almost 3.2 million have already voted.
Of those 3 million ballots cast, almost 170,000 were absentee ballots, with civilian ballots accounting for most of the ballots, about 148,000, military ballots accounting for nearly 5,000, and absentee (overseas) ballots accounting for more than 15,000 of those ballots.
“Early voting has been strong, and we are on pace to have the biggest early voting total ever in North Carolina,” Dr. Andy Jackson, Director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “However, total turnout still lags by about three hundred thousand compared to the same point in 2020. While we are gaining ground with every day of early voting, we will need a strong election day for 2024 to meet or exceed 2020’s turnout.”
By the end of Monday (Oct 28), more than 2.9 million voters cast ballots in person during the first twelve days of the early voting period. In 2020, more than 2.6 million voters cast their ballots during the same time period, according to a press release. Accounting for the increase in registered voters since 2020, in-person early voting has increased by 2.1%.
As of 10 am on Wednesday, voter turnout was at 3,382,286 ballots, according to NCSBE.
Additionally, turnout in the 25 counties in the western part of the state impacted by Hurricane Helene continues to outpace the rest of the state.
“We encourage all voters who have not yet cast their ballot to do so. There is still time. Let’s shatter 2020’s record turnout,” Patrick Gannon, Public Information Office for NCSBE, told the Carolina Journal. “Early voting continues through 3 pm Saturday at 420 sites across North Carolina. Of course, Election Day is next Tuesday, November 5. Polls will be open from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm. Voters should go to their assigned polling place on Election Day.”
While voter turnout is up, black voter turnout is significantly down from 2020, which could impact the Democratic vote. In 2020, 92% of black voters voted for Biden, according to the Pew Research Center.
Furthermore, young voter turnout is higher for Republicans than in previous elections, with Republicans up by 1,600 votes and Democrats down by 37,000 votes among young voters.
“The turnout deficit is totally on the Democratic side. They are behind their turnout at the same point in 2020 by about 328 thousand,” said Jackson. “Republicans and unaffiliated turnout are both about 14 thousand higher compared to 2020. We knew that Democrats were going to struggle to match their 2020 numbers because Democratic registrations have declined by 185 thousand since then, but that does not account for all their turnout decline.”