2020 Election: Absentee Ballot Requests Surge In Iredell County

MOORESVILLE, NC — Four weeks before election day, absentee ballot requests for the 2020 election made by registered voters in Iredell County were up nearly four times the peak total numbers requested in previous elections, according to a county election official.

As of Oct. 5, at least 18,770 voters — about 15 percent of those registered to cast a ballot in the county — had requested absentee ballots, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

In previous elections, the highest number of absentee ballot requests received by county voters was about 5,000, Iredell County Board of Elections Director Becky Galliher told Patch.

Despite widespread assumptions, however, Democrats have made only slightly more than a third of all the requests in Iredell County, according to state election data.

Here's how the 18,770 absentee ballot requests broke down along party lines as of data compiled Oct. 5, according to NCSBE:

• Democratic — 6,703 (36 percent)
• Unaffiliated — 6,542 (35 percent)
• Republican — 5,423 (29 percent)
• Libertarian — 85 (less than one percent)
• Green — 12 (less than one percent)
• Constitution — 5 (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, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As of Oct. 5, 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, 386,300 ballots have been returned to election officials.

Here's what NCSBE says about the cast absentee ballots in North Carolina as of Oct. 5:

Number of Ballots Requested By Voter Party Affiliation

• Democrats — 577,742
• Unaffiliated — 401,397
• Republican — 225,834
• Libertarian — 4,909
• Constitution — 351
• Green — 703

Ballots Cast By Party

• Democrats — 52.25 percent
• Unaffiliated — 30.24 percent
• Republican — 17.19 percent
• Libertarian — 0.26 percent
• Constitution — 0.02 percent
• Green — 0.05 percent

Ballots Cast By Race

• White — 72.43 percent
• Black — 15.95 percent
• Other — 11.62 percent

Ballots Cast By Gender

• Female — 53.29 percent
• Male — 41.57 percent
• Undesignated — 5.14 percent