Nearly 50% of North Carolina voters cast their ballots

As of Thursday morning, 3.6 million out of the nearly 7.8 million voters in the state had either early voted or submitted their absentee ballots.

“We are in tremendously good shape in terms of turnout in comparison to where we were this time six days out in 2020 and 2016,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections at a board meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Bell said both 2016 and 2020 numbers, the latter during COVID-19 restrictions, are likely to be broken going into Election Day.

In 2016, 2.4 million absentee and early voting ballots were submitted. Four years later, 3.9 million absentee and early voting ballots were submitted.

“We’ve definitely seen significant turnout,” Bell said. “We broke our record for the first day of early voting that was set in 2020 and … we are continuing to see tremendous interest in this election.”

Former President Donald Trump leads the polls by an average of 1.1%, according to Project 538.

Republicans are turning out in unexpectedly high numbers, actually outpacing both Democrats and those registered as unaffiliated. Republicans have made up 34% of all ballots cast, Democrats 33%, and unaffiliated 33%.

Bell said this historic turnout is especially significant considering the widespread damage western North Carolina received from Hurricane Helene. She applauded the quick recovery in the 25 hardest-hit counties which have allowed for early voting to continue smoothly.

“We have also seen tremendous improvement in the circumstances around Election Day,” Bell said. “The vast majority of Election Day sites will be open.”

Not only has recovery been speedy, but Bell said voter turnout in western North Carolina has been higher than even in counties not as affected by the storm.

“People are turning out in western North Carolina and they’re actually outpacing the rest of the state,” she said. “Hats off to these people who have faced so much personally, but are so committed to making sure that their neighbors and community members are able to cast their ballots.”