North Carolinians increasingly prefer to vote early.
In this year's primary election, nearly half of all votes cast were already signed, sealed, and delivered by Election Day. That's well above the two most recent midterm primary election, and mirrors a similar trend in general elections.
In fact, although more total ballots were cast this year than in 2022, there were actually 61,000 fewer ballots cast on Tuesday compared with Primary Election Day, 2022.
Overall, North Carolinians set a midterm primary record with more than 1.5 million ballots cast. However turnout was not equal between the two major parties. More than 800,000 people voted in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday. That's an increase of more than 30% compared to 2022, when Cheri Beasley won the Democratic Senate primary with little competition, after Jeff Jackson had dropped out of the race earlier.
On the Republican side, about 626,000 people voted in the GOP primary this year. That's an 18% drop from the number of voters who cast ballots when Ted Budd won the Republican primary four years ago over Pat McCrory.
"Last night's elections were a clear success for North Carolina," said Sam Hayes, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, in a news release. "Most importantly, there were no major controversies or problems with election administration, and that's exactly how it should be."
Still, although the total votes set a record, it was not a record in percentage terms. The 19.6% voter turnout represents a slight decrease from the 2022 midterm primary election.
