RALEIGH — North Carolinians cast more than 4.2 million votes during the state’s early voting period, beating the state’s previous early voting record in 2020 of over 3.6 million.
“I am proud of all of our 100 county boards of elections and the thousands of election workers who are making this happen in their communities,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in a press release. “And I am especially proud of the workers and voters of Western North Carolina. You are an inspiration to us all.”
According to the NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE), as of Sunday, 4,465,548 voters had cast their ballots in the 2024 general election. That is 57% of the state’s 7.8 million registered voters.
The NCSBE press release said the figures may be a bit lower than the actual turnout due to a “lag” between the casting of a ballot and when county boards of elections upload the data to the NCSBE.
Voters in the 25 western North Carolina counties impacted by Hurricane Helene had a higher turnout rate than the rest of the state at 58.9%.
Nationally, 74,573,985 mail-in and early in-person votes had been cast as of noon on Sunday, per NBC News’ vote tracker. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census, there were more than 161.4 million registered voters in 2022 out of the 18 years-plus population of over 255.4 million.
The data shows that statewide absentee by mail ballot numbers dropped 72% over 2020, with 240,465 such ballots cast in 2024 versus 864,929 in 2020. The opposite was true for in-person early voting numbers, which increased 38% in 2024, with 4,200,019 in-person ballots cast versus 3,034,768 in 2020.
According to the NCSBE, 7,378,587 eligible voters were registered in 2020. That number increased by 5.62% to 7,793,041 in 2024.
For Helene-impacted counties, NCSBE data shows that absentee by mail ballots dropped almost 71% over 2020’s figures, going from 131,034 in 2020 to 38,093 in 2024.
The total number of registered voters in the 25 named disaster declaration counties is 1,290,017, according to the NCSBE’s Helene website figures; that’s 61,429 more voters (a 5% increase) in those counties than were registered in 2020.
According to the same NCSBE Helene website figures, 72,272 absentee ballots were sent to voters in those counties, and 41,253 of those ballots were returned to election boards. That leaves 31,019 outstanding.
Based on the ballots cast by county chart provided by the NCBSE, the top counties with the largest early voting totals for all methods of voting are the largest urban areas in North Carolina: Wake (466,129), Mecklenburg (423,599), Guilford (215,981), Forsyth (154,547) and Durham (144,417).
- Top five counties for all methods of absentee by mail voting: Wake (39,022), Mecklenburg (33,088), Guilford (10,641), Forsyth (10,069) and Durham (8,196).
- Top five counties for overall early voting (all methods combined): Wake (505,151), Mecklenburg 456,687; Guilford (226,622), Forsyth (164,616) and Durham (152,613).
- Bottom five counties for early voting: Hyde (1,147), Tyrrell (1,153), Washington (4,178), Graham (3,344) and Jones (3,517).
- Bottom five counties for all methods of absentee by mail voting: Tyrrell (0), Pender (354), Washington (102), Perquimans (113) and Northampton (148).
- Bottom five counties for overall early voting (all methods combined): Tyrrell (1,153), Hyde (1,216), Washington (4,280), Jones (3,649) and Graham (3,491).
Nine Helene-impacted counties surpassed their 2020 combined early voting totals. Clay and Avery counties showed the highest percentage increases at 15.7% and 11.6%, respectively, while Lincoln County had the largest absolute increase with 4,024 more votes than in 2020.
- Alexander: +87 votes (+0.5%)
Ashe: +710 votes (+6.4%)
Avery: +690 votes (+11.6%)
Burke: +246 votes (+0.7%)
Caldwell: +158 votes (+0.4%)
Catawba: +2,687 votes (+4.0%)
Clay: +819 votes (+15.7%)
Lincoln: +4,024 votes (+9.7%)
McDowell: +1,348 votes (+7.8%)
Looking just at absentee ballot by mail returns for the Helene-impacted counties, the top five all saw significant decreases in absentee voting compared to 2020, with drops ranging from 69-74%.
- Buncombe saw a drop of 24,866, a 72% decrease (2024: 9,656 absentee ballots; 2020: 34,522 absentee ballots).
- Henderson saw a drop of 10,790, a 73% decrease (2024: 4,015 absentee ballots; 2020: 14,805 absentee ballots).
- Gaston saw a drop of 11,376, a 74% decrease (2024: 3,931 absentee ballots; 2020: 15,307 absentee ballots).
- Catawba saw a drop of 6,571, a 69% decrease (2024: 2,997 absentee ballots; 2020: 9,568 absentee ballots).
- Lincoln saw a drop of 4,205, a 70% decrease (2024: 1,807 absentee ballots; 2020: 6,012 absentee ballots).
For in-person early voting in Helene counties, Buncombe had the largest raw vote increase over 2020 figures with 9,733 additional in-person ballots, followed closely by Catawba with 9,258 more cast. When looking at the percentage increases, Lincoln had the most dramatic increase, with 23.1%, followed by Henderson at 21.1%.
- Gaston in-person increased 6,896 votes, an 8.5% increase (2024: 87,701; 2020: 80,805).
- Catawba in-person rose 9,258 votes, a 15.9% increase (2024: 67,513; 2020: 58,255).
- Lincoln in-person rose 8,229 votes, a 23.1% increase (2024: 43,847; 2020: 35,618).
- Buncombe in-person rose 9,733, a 9.2% increase (2024: 115,805; 2020: 106,072).
- Henderson in-person rose by 8,971, a 21.1% increase (2020: 41,700).
