2020 Election: Absentee Ballot Requests Surge In Mecklenburg

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NC — Nearly one out of every four registered voters in Mecklenburg County is planning to vote with a mail-in ballot in the upcoming 2020 election, according to state election data.

As of Oct. 6, at least 173,178 voters — about 22 percent of those registered to cast a ballot in the county — had requested absentee ballots, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Despite widespread assumptions, however, registered Democrats aren't the only voters making the mail-in ballot requests in Mecklenburg County, according to state election data.

Here's how the 173,178 absentee ballot requests in Mecklenburg County broke down along party lines as of data compiled Oct. 6, according to NCSBE:

• Democratic — 82,510 (48 percent)
• Unaffiliated — 61,191 (35 percent)
• Republican — 28,556 (16 percent)
• Libertarian — 783 (less than one percent)
• Green — 88 (less than one percent)
• Constitution — 50 (less than one percent)

The number of registered voters in North Carolina seeking to cast their ballot by mail in the upcoming presidential election is up about nine times the number of absentee ballot requests made compared to this time in 2016, NCSBE said this week.

As of Oct. 6, state election officials reported more than 1.2 million absentee ballots requests, representing about 17 percent of all North Carolina registered voters.

State election officials began sending out the ballots to voters on Friday, Sept. 4. Since that time, nearly 400,000 ballots have been returned to election officials, NCSBE said Wednesday.

Here's what NCSBE says about the cast absentee ballots in North Carolina as of Oct. 7:

Number of Ballots Requested In NC, By Voter Party Affiliation

• Democrats — 586,762
• Unaffiliated — 409,392
• Republican — 231,044
• Libertarian — 5,070
• Constitution — 365
• Green — 716

Ballots Cast By Party

• Democrats — 52.26 percent
• Unaffiliated — 30.23 percent
• Republican — 17.19 percent
• Libertarian — 0.26 percent
• Constitution — 0.02 percent
• Green — 0.04 percent

Ballots Cast By Race

• White — 72.38 percent
• Black — 15.96 percent
• Other — 11.66 percent

Ballots Cast By Gender

• Female — 53.30 percent
• Male — 41.53 percent
• Undesignated — 5.16 percent