North Carolina had 149,245 more early votes cast Friday, for a cumulative total of 980,035 through 9 days of a 17-day early voting period, nearing the 2004 final total of 984,294. The million vote barrier should be shattered sometime Saturday morning. The final 2008 number could be close to 2 million.
Blacks made up 26.87% of the Friday total, down from the 27.34% who voted Thursday. Both numbers greatly exceed the 21.4% of registered voters who are Black. Already, 22.33% of Black registered voters in North Carolina have voted early, compared with 14.14% of Whites.
The current D to R ratio is 58% to 25%, compared with 2004's final 48% to 37%
For 2008, here is a breakdown by race of the first 9 days:
Black 30.29%
White 65.89%
Native Am 0.35%
Two Races 0.38%
Other* 3.09%
* includes Asian, blank field, undesignated, AND other.
By party, the 2008 totals are
Cumulative 9-day
Unaffiliated 16.89%
Republican 24.90%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 58.16%
53.30% of the early votes Friday were Democratic, off from the 55.52% of Thursday. The 53.30% is nearly double the GOP total of 28.88% of Friday.
The entire electorate in North Carolina breaks down:
Unaffiliated 22.26%
Republican 32.04%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 45.66%
North Carolina registered over 862,000 new voters in 2008, and voter registration continues at early voting sites.
As of Friday, the following percentage of each party's electorate has voted early:
Unaffiliated 11.99%
Republican 12.27%
Libertarian 16.19%
Democratic 20.13%
2004 totals for early voting:
Unaffiliated 15%
Republican 37%
Libertarian 0.5%
Democratic 48%
North Carolina allows early voting through Saturday, November 1.
Here are the number of sites open each day:
Saturday 10/25: 197 in 53 counties
Sunday 10/26: 55 in 10 counties
Monday 10/27: 365 in 100 counties
Tuesday through Friday: 360 in 100 counties
Saturday 11/1 337 sites in 100 counties
90 counties cut off at 1 pm November 1, the other 10 have closing hours the final day from 2 pm to as late as 5 pm.
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
2008 http://sboe.state.nc.us (current registration)
October 25 registration totals at
http://www.app.sboe.state.nc.us/...
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/...
2008 new voters
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/...