Nearly 1 Million Absentee Ballots Requested So Far By NC Voters

NORTH CAROLINA — Nearly 1 million registered voters in North Carolina are seeking to cast their ballot in the upcoming presidential election through absentee voting, according to data reported this week by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As of Wednesday, the number of known cases of COVID-19 in North Carolina rose to 196,501, an increase of nearly 1,000 additional lab-confirmed cases in the span of a day, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Interest in voting by mail amid the ongoing pandemic has skyrocketed in North Carolina and around the U.S. About 60 percent of voters want to vote early, according to a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.

As of Sept. 22, registered voters had requested 971,631 absentee ballots, according to NCSBE.

State election officials began sending out the ballots to voters on Friday, Sept. 4. Since that time, 173,301 ballots have been returned to election officials.

SEE ALSO: Vote-By-Mail Survey: NC Voters Nervous Ballots Won't Be Counted

Here's what NCSBE says about the cast absentee ballots as of Sept. 23:

Ballots Cast By Party

• Democrats — 54.93 percent
• Republican — 15.65 percent
• Unaffiliated — 29.15 percent
• Libertarian — 0.22 percent
• Constitution — 0.02 percent
• Green — 0.04 percent

Ballots Cast By Race

• White — 73.71 percent
• Black — 16.17 percent
• Other — 10.12 percent

Ballots Cast By Gender

• Female — 52.5 percent
• Male — 43.05 percent
• Undesignated — 4.44 percent