The span of early voting in North Carolina could be limited to just a week ahead of Election Day if a new proposal makes headway in the state legislature this session.
A new bill filed last week in the North Carolina General Assembly seeks to reduce the state’s early voting period by more than half. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Wyatt Gable, R-Onslow, the youngest member ever elected to the North Carolina General Assembly at 22 years old.
The bill would shorten the early voting period from 17 days to just eight days, beginning on the second Monday before Election Day and ending at 3:00pm on the last Saturday before the election.
For reference, in the recent 2024 election early voting began on Oct. 17, but the new proposal would have pushed back the start until Oct. 28.
“Reducing the number of early voting days would help reduce financial and personnel burdens on county election boards,” said Dr. Andy Jackson, Director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity. “However, reducing them too much may require counties to open more sites, at least partially negating the advantage of reducing the number of days. My own research suggests that a “sweet spot” of between seven and ten days of early voting may be ideal.”
When it comes to voter turnout, reducing the number of early voting days by more than half will not reduce early voting turnout by more than half, Jackson further explained, because most voters will choose to vote on other days. According to a 2019 academic report on early voting in North Carolina, there is “little evidence that changes to early opportunities in North Carolina had uniform effects on voter turnout.”
Despite common assumptions that early voting favors Democrats, recent elections show that the early voting opportunities benefit both parties.
“While politicians on both sides believe that early voting benefits Democrats, that is no longer the case,” Jackson added. “For example, Donald Trump won 51 percent of the early vote in the 2024 election in North Carolina compared to 48 percent for Kamala Harris.”
Registered Republicans were 34 percent of all North Carolina early voters in 2024 compared to 32 percent for Democrats.
Rep. Gable declined to comment for this story.