151,935 Early ballots cast

by Susan Myrick, Civitas Review Online, May 2, 2014.

In total, more than 180,000 voters voted early in 2010, using both the in-person, one-stop sites and mail-in absentee ballots. This year's latest early voting turnout numbers from the State Board of Elections are at 151,935 ballots cast so far (as of close of business yesterday). Of those, 145,000 have voted at one-stop sites. That's 33,412 more one-stop votes than in 2010 at the same time during early voting (6 days out from Election Day). In 2010 one-stop voting occurred over 17 days, this year one-stop voting was shortened to ten days. So in 2010 at this time voters had voted over a span of 14 days compared to seven days so far this year.

There's a difference in who's voting this year compared to 2010 too. So far this year, Democrats make up 48 percent of all voters compared to 51 percent in 2010. Republicans, this year make up 33 percent of voters and in 2010 made up 32 percent of the voters. The Unaffiliated voter percentage has risen from 17 percent in 2010 to 19 percent so far this year.

In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters may request any one of the political party's ballots during a primary. The change in ballot requests, by party are most likely due to the U.S. Senate race on the Republican side. To date, Democratic ballot requests are 54 percent and Republican 45 percent. In 2010 the requests were Democratic – 58 percent and Republican requests of 41 percent.

The NC Vote Tracker relies on official vote data from the State Board of Elections. Each day, the Board updates their absentee voter file with the previous days input from the 100 local boards and we take the data and add it to ncvotetracker.com.

Last day to vote at one-stop is Saturday, May 3.