UPDATE: Wednesday, October 22, 85,689 more had voted by 3:30 pm, bringing the grand total to 629,711. Half of the sites are open until 6 pm or later this evening, some as late as 8 pm.
North Carolina had 139,475 more early votes cast Tuesday, for a cumulative six-day total of 544,020. A 17-day early voting period opened in North Carolina last Thursday. The 139,475 is the biggest day so far. Demographics have stayed reasonably stable, Blacks made up 31.34% of the Tuesday total, down slightly from the 32.9% who voted Monday. Already, 13.43% of Black registered voters in North Carolina have voted early, compared with 7.62% of Whites.
For 2008, here is a breakdown by race of the first six days:
Black 32.44%
White 63.73%
Two Races 0.38%
Other* 3.45%%
* includes Asian, Native American, blank field, undesignated, AND other.
By party, the 2008 totals are
Cumulative six-day
Unaffiliated 16.43%
Republican 22.87%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 60.65%
October 21 only
Unaffiliated 16.42%
Republican 24.44%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 59.10%
The 59.10% Democratic Tuesday was off slightly from the 60.16% of Monday.
The entire electorate in North Carolina as of Tuesday breaks down:
Unaffiliated 22.25%
Republican 32.08%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 45.61%
As of Tuesday, the following percentage of each party's electorate has voted early:
Unaffiliated 6.49%
Republican 8.95%
Libertarian 6.27%
Democratic 11.69%
In 2004, 984,298 early votes were cast for the 17-day period, breaking down:
Unaffiliated 13.34%
Republican 36.11%
Libertarian 0.14%
Democratic 50.41%
North Carolina allows early voting through Saturday, November 1. Wednesday, 323 sites are open around the state, and the number grows to 333 Thursday, 335 Friday and 367 next Monday, before dropping to 360 on Tuesday. Saturday, October 25, 197 sites are open in 53 of the 100 counties, while Sunday, October 26 will see 55 sites in 10 counties open. Saturday, November 1, all 100 counties must have at least one site open until 1 pm. New voters can also register at the sites.
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.
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