63 percent of all registered voters cast ballots during early voting period

Published 1:35 pm Monday, November 2, 2020

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For the two-week period of early voting which ended Saturday, 27,132 people came out to vote in Stanly County. The total accounts for roughly 63 percent of the total electorate of almost 43,000.

Republicans led the way with almost 14,000 casting ballots, which accounts for roughly 70 percent of the total electorate. They were followed by 5,830 Democrats (60 percent of total electorate) and 7,150 unaffiliated voters (55 percent of electorate).

Mark Lowder, chairman of the Stanly County Republican Party, said the Republican turnout was the most he has ever seen during early voting for a presidential election.

“I thought it would be a very good turnout, but I wasn’t aware that it would get that high this early,” Lowder said. “That was a surprise to me.”

He expects a significant portion of people will turn out Tuesday to vote on Election Day.

“Democrats and others are energized to defeat Donald Trump, especially in the disaster of his handling of the coronavirus,” said Kevin Taylor, chairman of the Democratic Party in Stanly, about the robust turnout.

More than 23,750 people voted in-person at one of the four polling locations while more than 3,370 voted by mail. The two-week total easily surpasses the 19,370 votes that were cast during early voting in 2016.

When examining ballots cast at each location, 10,489 people voted at the board of elections in Albemarle, 7,270 people voted at Locust Town Center, 3,381 people voted at the New London Fire Department and 2,613 people voted at the Norwood Community Building.

White people in the county accounted for 21,744 votes, while Black people accounted for 2,250 votes; 13,303 females voted compared to 11,323 men.

The historic early voting turnout is not just confined to Stanly County. More than 4.5 million votes have been cast in North Carolina, which accounts for almost 62 percent of total electorate. It also accounts for 95 percent of the total votes cast during the 2016 election.

Statewide, 1.7 million Democrats have cast ballots, which accounts for 37 percent of the vote total, followed by 1.44 million Republicans (32 percent of total) and 1.38 million unaffiliated voters (30 percent).

In the United States, more than 95 million people have already voted. Voters across the nation have cast 69 percent of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election.

The N.C. State Board of Elections anticipates that the results reported by the end of election night will include 97 percent or more of all ballots cast in North Carolina in the 2020 general election, according to a NCSBE press release.

The vast majority of all votes cast in the 2020 general election in North Carolina will be reported as unofficial results Tuesday, per the press release. All results are unofficial until the statewide certification, or canvass, which is scheduled for Nov. 24, during a meeting of the State Board.

On Election Day, voters can only vote at their assigned polling place. Polling places will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Any voter in line at their assigned polling place at 7:30 will be able to vote.

 

 

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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