North Carolina saw 37,229 more early votes cast Saturday at an abbreviated slate of 103 sites in 34 of its 100 counties. A 17-day early voting period opened in North Carolina Thursday, and the three day total through Saturday evening is 251,709. The first Saturday in 2004 7,471 voted, and the 3-day total in '04 was 70,652.
For 2008, here is a breakdown by race:
Black 31.88%
White 64.19%
Other* 3.93%
Blacks made up 29.3% of the Saturday total.
* includes Asian, Native American, blank field, undesignated, other, and two races
By party, the two election cycles for the first three days of early voting were markedly different:
2008
Unaffiliated 16.46%
Republican 22.11%
Libertarian 0.04%
Democratic 61.39%
2004
Unaffiliated 12.62%
Republican 38.72%
Libertarian 0.14%
Democratic 48.52%
Sunday, October 19 five counties will be open for voting with 30 sites, most in urban counties, including Cumberland (Fayetteville), Durham (Durham), Guilford (Greensboro), and Wake (Raleigh). In 2004, just one county had early voting the first Sunday.
UPDATE: Durham County voted 2,218 early voters Sunday at its seven sites.
http://www.durhamcountync.gov/...
North Carolina allows early voting through Saturday, November 1. While 299 sites were open the first two days, the total will grow to about 380 by late next week, as some counties open some sites only near the end of the 19-day period. New voters can also register at the sites, but I do not have any registration information yet.
This diary does NOT include stats on mail-in absentee ballots, only those cast in person. Since North Carolina captures party and race on its registration records, and posts early votes cast to the voter record each evening, stats can be run the next morning.
No racial breakdown is available for 2004 on the State Board of Elections files.
see my earlier diary at http://www.dailykos.com/...
files used for data analysis
2008 ftp://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/enrs/absentee11xx04xx2008_Stats.xls (updated daily)
2004 ftp://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/enrs/absentee11xx02xx2004.zip