North Carolina continued to set early voting records Monday as 182,518 more votes were cast at 352 locations, besting the previous daily high of 153,732. The cumulative total of 1,284,267 in person early votes through 12 days of a 17-day period continues to eclipse the old mark of 984,294 that covered all 17 days in 2004. The final 2008 number could be close to 2 million.
Blacks made up 27.64% of the Monday total, up from the 26.87% who voted early Friday, the previous early voting weekday. Both numbers greatly exceed the 21.4% of registered voters who are Black. Already, 29.10% of Black registered voters in North Carolina have voted early, compared with 18.54% of Whites.
For 2008, here is a breakdown by race of the first 12 days:
Black 30.12%
White 65.86%
Native Am 0.35%
Two Races 0.39%
Other* 3.18%
* includes Asian, blank field, undesignated, AND other. Hispanics who list themselves as undesignated or other or leave the race field blank are aggregated under "Other". Hispanics who also list Black or White appear in those categories
UPDATE: From poll opening Tuesday through 3:30 pm, another 116,252 early votes were cast. Most urban counties have polls open until 7 pm this evening.
By party, the 2008 totals are
Cumulative 12-day
Unaffiliated 17.26%
Republican 25.51%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 57.18%
53.45% of the early votes Monday were Democratic, up from the 53.30% of last Friday, the previous weekday. The 53.45% is nearly double the GOP total of 28.72% of Monday.
The entire electorate in North Carolina breaks down:
Unaffiliated 22.26%
Republican 32.02%
Libertarian 0.05%
Democratic 45.67%
North Carolina registered over 862,000 new voters in 2008, and voter registration continues at early voting sites.
As of Monday, the following percentage of each party's electorate has voted early:
Unaffiliated 16.01%
Republican 16.45%
Libertarian 21.09%
Democratic 25.84%
2004 totals for early voting:
Unaffiliated 15%
Republican 37%
Libertarian 0.5%
Democratic 48%
Some major urban counties, 2004 final and 2008 to date totals
2004 2008
Durham 46,137 59,111
Mecklenburg 91,485 123,400
Wake 91,250 135,200.
North Carolina allows early voting through Saturday, November 1.
Here are the number of sites open each day:
Tuesday: 357 in 100 counties
Wednesday through Friday: 364 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/...