About 31 percent of voters have already cast ballots
Published 9:32 am Friday, October 23, 2020
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A full week into early voting in Stanly County and 13,253 votes have been cast. The tally accounts for roughly 31 percent of all registered voters in the county (42,575).
More than a third of all registered Republicans, 7,142, have already cast ballots, while more than a quarter of registered Democrats, 2,758, have done so. Unaffiliated voters, which make up 30 percent of the total electorate, have cast 3,319 ballots.
The one-week tally dwarfs the total number of voters who cast ballots through the same point in 2016 (8,749), though the number is misleading since the board of elections was the only location open through the first five days. Even when looking at the first seven days that all four voting locations were open in 2016, the total number (11,029) still pales in comparison to the past week.
More people came out to vote on the first day of early voting this year, 2,488 people cast ballots, than on any of the 14 days in 2016. During the two weeks of early voting four years ago, turnout only topped 2,000 once, on Nov. 4, while this year, more than 2,000 people have voted at least three days already.
When examining ballots cast at each location, 5,828 people voted at the board of elections in Albemarle, 4,090 people voted at Locust Town Center, 1,878 people voted at the New London Fire Department and 1,457 people voted at the Norwood Community Building.
White people in the county accounted for 10,936 votes, while Black people accounted for 1,158 votes; 6,700 females have voted so far compared to 5,630 men.
A total of 4,671 in the county have already requested absentee ballots for the general election, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans 1,772 to 1,594.
The first few days of early voting resulted in long lines, especially in the morning, though the lines seem to have gotten shorter with each passing day.
Each of the four early voting sites are open from 8 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. weekdays. Curbside voting is also available. Early voting will run through Oct. 31.
Statewide, more than 1.9 million people have already participated in early voting (26 percent of all registered voters) while more than 700,000 have cast absentee ballots.
About Chris Miller
Chris Miller has been with the SNAP since January 2019. He is a graduate of NC State and received his Master's in Journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously wrote for the Capital News Service in Annapolis, where many of his stories on immigration and culture were published in national papers via the AP wire.
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