Originally posted at Dr. Michael Bitzer’s blog, Old North State Politics. Dr. Bitzer is a professor of politics and history at Catawba College. He’s a frequent analyst and commentator on news and public affairs programs because of understanding and knowledge of Southern politics, particularly in the Carolinas. You can reach him at politics at catawba dot edu or follow him on twitter at @CatawbaPolitics.
Not much has really changed with the steady stream of requests for and returns & acceptances of mail-in ballots in North Carolina’s general election.
As of today, 15,147 requests have been submitted for mail-in ballots, an increase of 5% from the previous day. Of these requests, 41% are from registered Democratic voters, 35% from registered Republicans, and 23% from registered unaffiliated voters. Women are still 55% of the requested ballots, with white voters at 83% and black voters at 12%.
For returned and accepted ballots, 2,236 ballots are now considered votes (15% of the requested so far). Democrats are right at 1,000 (45% of the total returned & accepted), with Republicans at 36% and unaffiliated voters at 19%. White voters are 81% and black voters are 15%, slightly higher than their requested rate.
Finally, in comparing this year’s mid-term election’s mail-in ballots that are returned and accepted to 2010’s same figures, the trend continues: this year’s numbers are substantially higher, and Democrats continue their edge against Republicans (just a reminder: Republicans have traditionally been the plurality of ballots coming via mail-in).
Again, the above chart tracks ‘day-to-day’ comparisons from Election Day out in 2010 and 2014 and the number of cumulative ballots for both parties that have come in to that day (today, Sept. 25, is 41 days out of from Election Day).
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
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