Voters appear more interested in casting early ballots this year than they have in previous mid-term elections.
By Sunday evening, more than 347,000 people had voted at one-stop sites, according to the State Board of Elections.
In the 2006 general election, about 375,000 people cast one-stop ballots. Voters are on track to easily surpass that number by the time early voting ends Saturday.
So far, ballots from registered Democrats outnumber Republicans'. Democrats are responsible for about 44 percent of the turnout so far. Republicans are 38 percent and unaffiliated voters about 17 percent.
Nearly 7 percent of white registered voters have cast early ballots, and about 5 percent of black voters have voted at one-stop sites.
According to an early voting site sponsored by Civitas, more women than men have cast one-stop ballots. In the first few days of early voting, men were leading.
The average early voter's age has dropped to 60 from 61.
Participation is heaviest in Mecklenburg, but Wake, which expanded its one-stop sites late last week, has jumped to second place.
Comments
Do you want straight news or analysis from the N&O?
October 27, 2010 - 11:03am — muck_rakerI criticize this paper for sloppy and lazy reporting at times, too; but I hear from so many who criticize it for bias in anlysis and who say it supports the Democrats or the powers that be. Actually the later is more accurate than the first criticism.
But those who want analysis must expect some opinion to creep in. Don't you think? It is hard to analyze numbers, but it needs to be done. How many writers are qualified to do statistical analysis?
You aren't following the
October 26, 2010 - 9:47pm — LazydawgYou aren't following the point I made. It's not that registered Democrats might sometimes vote for a Republican or Independent. It is that there are Republicans that have never bothered to change their registration to Republican. There are reasons for this but they are pretty outdated now. We were once a one party state so in order to get a job in local or state government (or for your children or other relatives) it was wise to make sure your registration was Democratic. At the local level there was often no Republicans on the ballot and the race for sheriff or county commissioner was decided in the Democratic primary. So if you wanted to affect the race you needed to be a Democrat. The Republican Party was the yankee party that repressed the white man during reconstruction so no self respecting Southerner would register as a Republican. Today we are a two party state, there are Republicans in almost every race and often several running in the Republican primary. Reconstruction ended 143 years ago and the party doesn't carry the stigma it once did. So you see if you vote for the person on a case by case basis register as unafilliated, if you view the issues mostly along the lines of the Republicans register Republican and if you view the issues mostly along the lines of the Democrats register as a Democrat. It's not rocket science.
How about a little perspective, N&O?
October 26, 2010 - 1:48pm — teepackOnce again, the N&O thinks all they need to do is publish some numbers, and they've done their job. Yes, more registered Democrats have voted so far than registered Republicans, but how about some context? Would it be too difficult to do a little digging and analysis? I guess it is, so I'll do it for them.
According to the latest stats from the state Board of Elections, there are 800,000-plus more registered Democrats in N.C. than Republicans, 2,765,328 to 1,954,785. According to Civitas stats updated today, 201,070 registered Dems have voted, for a total percentage of 7.27 percent of registered Democrats. Civitas reports that 171,277 Repubs have voted, for a turnout of 8.52 percent. So while the raw numbers favor the Dems, the percentage favors the Repubs. Should make for an interesting Election Day. Interestingly, only 5.33 of the registered unaffiliated voters have turned out so far.
What a shame
October 26, 2010 - 1:20pm — teepackThat sure is awful that a registered Democrat would vote for a Republican candidate - or vice versa! Don't these people know that if they register for a certain party, it's their moral obligation and duty to vote only for the candidates from that party? Geez, Louise! How can people be so stupid?
Unfortunately registered
October 25, 2010 - 9:47pm — LazydawgUnfortunately registered Democrats that early vote is a misleading indicator. Many, maybe 15% of those registered that way never vote that way. They vote Republican but for a number of reasons refuse to change their registration. It would be nice if they would acknowledge / accept the reality of what they are. After all it's not like they are going to be denied the right to serve in the military or anything like that.
Avoid entirely...
October 25, 2010 - 6:42pm — SaintPinehurstThe fact that Dem turnout in EV is way down from 2008, and GOP turnout is way up. And GOP will probably run the tables on election day itself.
Black Panthers at the Precincts...
October 25, 2010 - 4:38pm — louisburgpatriotWell it appears that Rob's rallying call last week did the trick....tomorrow we will see an article from Rob calling all liberals to gather their paramilitary gear and pipes to guard the precincts to protect the Democrats advantage...Election Day is coming!