North Carolina early vote 2026
State file of Oct 25 · North Carolina State Board of Elections, absentee file ↗
On the ballot in North Carolina: Senate forecast →
Ballots by party, day by day
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Starts at day 31; few ballots were in before then.
Registered Democrats have cast 45% more ballots than at this point in 2022, Republicans 4% more and unaffiliated voters 60% more.
Against whole elections
So far, North Carolina’s early ballots equal 41% of all votes cast for U.S. Senate in 2022 and 27% of all votes cast for President in 2024.
- 2026 so farearly ballots returned1,544,674
- 2022 earlyall early ballots, 58% of all votes2,187,856
- 2022 all votescast for U.S. Senate3,773,924
| Year | Early ballots, final | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | D+7.1 | R+3.2 U.S. Senate |
| 2024 | R+0.8 | R+3.2 President |
Registration is not a vote, and the result also counts every ballot cast on Election Day. Results: Federal Election Commission, Federal Elections 2022; Federal Election Commission, Official 2024 Presidential General Election Results.
Ballots added each day, last 7 days
1.04M this year against 768K on the same day of voting of 2022 · +35%
- 25K20KDay 45
- 208K149KDay 46
- 191K137KDay 47
- 177K130KDay 48
- 167K129KDay 49
- 183K140KDay 50
- 89K63KDay 51
Where the ballots are
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Last column: this year's ballots as a share of the county's whole 2022 early vote.
- Wake190,887D+29.375%
- Mecklenburg159,588D+36.476%
- Guilford79,302D+30.772%
- Durham66,971D+54.276%
- Forsyth59,408D+25.171%
- Buncombe57,802D+32.074%
- New Hanover38,610D+9.668%
- Brunswick36,504R+7.374%
- Union35,127R+3.866%
- Cumberland34,468D+37.871%
Party registration
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- 2026D+17.6
- 2022Oct 29D+8.1
- 2024Oct 26R+1.1
Dem 640,474 +45%Rep 367,908 +4%Unaff. 536,292 +60%
Changes are against the same point of 2022.
Mail or in person
Mail 59,845 3.9%In person 1,484,829 96.1%
In-person early voting: Oct 15 to Oct 31.
Known
- 1,544,674 ballots returnedthrough Oct 24
- Each ballot's party registration
- Mail or in person
- Day by daysince Sep 4
- By 100 counties and congressional districts
- Voters' age, gender and race
- Against the same point of 2022
Not known
- How anyone votedballots stay sealed until they are counted
- How unaffiliated voters lean536,292, 35% of ballots
- Election Day turnout
- Mail ballots still outrequested or sent and not yet returned; not read from the state's file yet
- Ballots still being keyedpast files added 2–6% to recent days later
Who has voted
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Age
- 18-298.2%8.3%
- 30-4412.5%14.5%
- 45-6431.2%36.2%
- 65+48.1%41%
Gender
- Men44.2%45.1%
- Women55.8%54.9%
Race and ethnicity
- Asian1.6%1.3%
- Black23.1%19.5%
- Hispanic3.1%1.7%
- Other2.2%1.9%
- White70%75.6%
How North Carolina is counted and compared
Mail ballots went out 18 days later in 2024 (42 days before that election, against 60 this year), so 2024 had had less time by this point.
- 2022 is read on the same day of voting as this year. Voting opened 60 days before the election in 2022 (September 9) and 60 days before it this year (September 4), so each year is read on the same day of its own voting.
- 2024 is read at the same number of days before the election. In 2024 mail ballots went out 18 days later than this year after a court-ordered reprint, while in-person early voting opened 19 days before the election in both years; lining up the first day of voting would read this year's mail-only count against 2024 two days before its election.
- Counts ballots the board has accepted, including those accepted after a cure or with a photo-ID exception form; ballots awaiting a cure or review are not yet included.
- A ballot is dated by the return date the county keyed, which can be entered some days late. In three archived copies of this file, 2.5% to 5.4% of the accepted mail ballots through the latest complete day were added later; none of the three is from mid-October of a midterm year, so the range is a guide, not a bound.
- Since the 2023 municipal elections a mailed ballot needs a copy of photo ID or an exception form; in 2022 it did not.
- Mail ballots went out September 4, 2026, 60 days before the election.
- 2024: Rebuilt from the board's final file. A ballot is dated by the return date the county keyed, which can be entered some days late.
- 2024: Mail ballots went out late in 2024: September 20 to military and overseas voters and September 24 to everyone else (42 days before the election, not the usual 60), after a court ordered ballots reprinted.
- 2024: Since the 2023 municipal elections a mailed ballot needs a copy of photo ID or an exception form; in 2022 it did not.
- 2024: From 2024 a mailed ballot must arrive by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day (no three-day grace period).
- 2024: Hurricane Helene disrupted voting in western counties in 2024.
- 2024: 2 accepted ballots with an impossible return date (a keying error in the file) are left out.
- 2022: Rebuilt from the board's final file. A ballot is dated by the return date the county keyed, which can be entered some days late.
- 2022: Mail ballots went out September 9, 2022, 60 days before the election.
- 2022: In 2022 a mailed ballot needed no photo ID, and counted if postmarked by Election Day and received within three days.
Last checked Counts change only when a state has posted a new file.
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