CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Over a third of North Carolina's registered voters have already cast ballots in the 2024 election, according to the state's board of election.
Approximately 2,821,000 ballots had been cast through Sunday, according to North Carolina state data. That accounts for about 36% of the state's eligible approximately 7,793,000 registered voters.
Of those votes, about 2,666,000 were cast in-person during early voting and about 155,000 were absentee ballots, according to the state. About 35% of the state's approximately 441,000 requested absentee ballots have been returned.
Tuesday marks the deadline to request an absentee ballot for the election the following week.
More than 41 million votes have already been cast in the election nationwide. Democrats generally have an advantage in early voting, but so far, at least, Republicans are participating at a much higher rate than they have in the past.
The question: Will it last?
Trump, of course, has for years encouraged his supporters to cast only in-person ballots on Election Day. The practice put the GOP at a significant disadvantage. He largely reversed course in recent months as he and his party acknowledged the obvious benefit of being able to bank their votes as early as possible.
Because of the Republican participation, the early turnout was breaking records last week in swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina.
But with the GOP more focused on “election integrity” rather than a traditional get-out-the-vote operation, it’s unclear whether the uptick in Republican early voting will continue. Democrats hope it won’t.
Early voting turnout has shown a modest increase compared to the 2020 election cycle. After the first seven days of in-person voting, nearly 1,888,000 voters had participated, marking a 6.6% increase from 2020's count of 1,761,000 during the same period. When accounting for the growth in registered voters since 2020, this represents a 0.4% increase in early voting participation.
State election officials note that actual turnout numbers may be slightly higher due to delays between ballot casting and data upload by county election boards.
In-person early voting will continue through Saturday, November 2. Voting sites and schedules vary by county, with some counties not offering Sunday voting options. Voters can check their county's specific early voting schedule and location listing here.
Meanwhile, approximately 735,400 South Carolinians have cast their votes, setting a new state record and surpassing the 561,600 early votes case in 2022.
Early voting in South Carolina also continues until Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
WCNC Charlotte will have live election coverage of all the local and statewide elections starting at 7 p.m. on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5 on streaming on WCNC+, and all election results can be found by texting the word ELECTION to 704-329-3600 or going to WCNC Charlotte's election page.