Democracy NC reports: Early voter turnout rising

Democracy North Carolina is studying early voting every week and releasing a subsequent in-depth analyses of turnout patterns across the state.

The analyses, which will be released twice per week, are based on one-stop absentee ballot data available from the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement. Last week, the voting rights organization’s report looked at the first day of early voting and compared it to the last midterm election in 2014, but noted there is no perfect election to use for comparison.

“In the last midterm election, the Early Voting period was truncated to only 10 day by legislation that was eventually overturned to restore 17 days of Early Voting in time for the 2016 General Election,” the analysis states.

This week, the organization is looking at the first weekend of early voting in North Carolina.

“This year, only 27 counties had Early Voting sites open on the first Saturday of Early Voting, compared to 48 counties in 2016, and over 80 counties in 2014 (although there were only two Saturdays total in 2014 due to the shortened [early voting] period, compared to three Saturdays this year and in 2016),” the analysis states. “On the first Sunday of Early Voting, 9 counties had sites open, compared to 10 in 2014 and 12 in 2016. Turnout patterns over the weekend roughly reflected the pattern of sites open — with reduced Saturday numbers (27,605) compared to the first Saturday of [early voting] in 2014 (49,996) and 2016 (68,893). On Sunday, more voters cast ballots (13,057) than in 2014 (12,193).”

Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2018/10/22/democracy-nc-reports-early-voter-turnout-rising/


The chart compares vote totals after the first weekend of early voting. It is important to note, however, that the 2018 total is the result of five days of Early Voting compared to the other years’ four days, due to 2018’s new Wednesday start. (graph courtesy of Democracy NC)