Today, as we begin the second half of early voting, N.C. voters will set a record for total votes cast before election day.

As of yesterday, the ninth of 17 early voting days, voters had cast 1,088,825 early votes. In all of 2004 early voting, 1.1 million early votes were cast, Peter St. Onge of the Charlotte Observer reports.

Here's your enthusiasm breakdown of who's headed out to the polls thus far. A reminder, these numbers reflect only who has voted — NOT for whom they voted.

Party: Democrats 58%, Republicans 25%, Unaffiliated 17%.
Gender: Women 56%, Men 43%
Race: Whites 66%, Blacks 30%

Still a great deal of enthusiasm among Democrats, but as experts predicted, the numbers are beginning to even out a bit. Democrats fell below 60 percent for the first time in early voting.

Democrats have a massive edge in early voting here.

According to a post on MSNBC's First Read blog by erstwhile North Carolina parachutist-journalist Carrie Dann, over 340,000 North Carolinians had cast ballots as of this morning through absentee or one-stop voting.

Of 270,000 in-person voters since "One Stop" opened last Thursday, over 60% were registered Democrats, compared to only 20% Republicans. (The remainder: mostly unaffiliated voters, who make up about 20% of the state's electorate.)

Of the 66,000 civilians who have mailed in absentee ballots, Republicans have outnumbered Democrats by a margin of about 2-1.

Still, registered Democrats make up 55% of those who have already cast votes for the North Carolina general election, while registered Republicans account for less than one in three ballots already cast.

And they're off.

Early voting in the 2008 elections began this morning around North Carolina.

All county boards of election will hold one-stop walk-in voting during normal business hours Monday through Friday and until 1 p.m. on Saturdays through Nov. 1.

In addition, some counties will allow one-stop voting at satellite offices. To find your counties' site, check here on the State Board of Elections site or call your local board of elections.

If you're not registered to vote, you can register and vote at the same time at a one-stop site. (You cannot register and then vote on Election Day, however.) 

Several surrogates for Barack Obama will promote one-stop voting.

Former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus will hold a rally at 3:30 p.m. today in Asheville, while former UNC basketballer Sam Perkins will host a rally at 1 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

The campaign will also host one-stop rallies at Western Carolina University, Sandhills Community College and UNC-Charlotte today and tomorrow. 

Barack Obama is locking up the indie vote.

Not unaffiliated voters, mind you, but indie rockers. The Democratic presidential candidate will hold two concerts featuring independent-label bands Superchunk and Arcade Fire to encourage young voters to cast their ballots early.

Superchunk is a beloved Chapel Hill band best known for a song — whose title is unprintable here — about a particularly slothful Kinko's coworker. Arcade Fire is an arty Montreal band that draws on the Talking Heads for inspiration.

The bands will play at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex Pavilion parking lot at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, and at Carrboro Town Commons at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 2. Tickets are free, with admission on a first-come, first-served basis.

The concerts are designed to highlight Obama's early voting effort, held early in the afternoon so that attendees can cast one-stop ballots afterward.

One-stop voting is rivaling turnout for a general election.

According to statistics compiled by the State Board of Elections at the request of Dome, the five-day total of ballots cast at one-stop sites is 45,429.

That's slightly less than the 57,250 for the five-day period between Oct. 19-23, 2006. But that was a general election.

By comparison, the 2006 primary saw just 7,688 votes cast at one-stop sites between April 13-17.

Put another way: One-stop voting turnout so far is six times what it was at a comparable point in the last primary.

Unaffiliated early voters are asking for Democratic ballots by a 5-to-1 ratio over Republican ballots.

According to results posted Sunday by the State Board of Elections, voters requesting absentee ballots by mail, members of the U.S. military voting elsewhere, overseas voters and one-stop voters are far more interested in the Democratic primary.

So far, 36,011 registered Democrats have voted early, 11,741 registered Republicans and 9,794 unaffiliated voters.

To put those numbers in context: Nearly 63 percent of the ballots requested so far were by Democrats, although they make up only about 45 percent of the electorate.

Among the unaffiliated voters, 7,054 asked for Democratic ballots, 1,433 asked for Republican ballots and 1,297 asked for unaffiliated ballots.

The unaffiliated ballot only has judgeships and local nonpartisan races.

Pat McCrory sent out some bad advice via Facebook.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate sent 649 members of the "Pat McCrory for Governor" group an e-mail at 1 a.m. today urging them to vote for him during North Carolina's one-stop voting.

Remember, if you're an unaffiliated voter, you must pick the Republican ballot to vote for me whether you vote early or on May 6th If you're a Democrat, you can switch to unaffiliated or Republican at your onestop voting site so you can vote for me!

The first part is true. Unaffiliated voters can request the Republican ballot to vote for McCrory.

But Democratic voters will not be able to vote for McCrory no matter what they do.

Though North Carolina allows existing voters to update their address or other vital information at one-stop sites, they cannot change their party affiliation.

Thousands of North Carolinians went to the polls Thursday.

On the first day of one-stop voting for the May 6 primary, more than 13,000 people cast ballots by 5 p.m. and more are expected today. (N&O)

In Mecklenburg County, turnout was six times what it was in 2004, the last presidential primary. Then, about 50 people showed up; this time, more than 300.

"These are really good numbers," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Elections Director Michael Dickerson, "and everything we do early means that you don't have to worry about it on election day."

North Carolina has not held a presidential primary where the race was still undecided since 1988.

Terry McAuliffe, head of Hillary Clinton's campaign, flew from Oregon to visit one-stop voting sites in Charlotte, Concord and Salisbury. (Char-O) 

He argued that North Carolina would be in play in the general election. (GN-R) 

Barack Obama told his audience to vote early.

Obama urged audience members to participate in North Carolina's early voting, which began today. He also has conducted an online push to remind voters about one-stop voting.

"I won't tell you who you have to vote for, but I will tell you who I'd like you to vote for," he said.

Obama's supporters handed out fliers at the event with information about one-stop voting.