NC Sliding Obama in Early Voting

More than 1M people cast NC early voting ballots

By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

ASHEVILLE - More than 1 million people have now cast a ballot in North Carolina's early voting, surpassing the total number who voted at one-stop sites four years ago.

Data released Sunday by the State Board of Elections shows 1,078,710 have voted at early sites. In 2004, the state counted some 984,000 ballots during the full early period.

Early voting started Oct. 16, and counties have been increasing the availability of one-stop sites since then, easing some of the hours-long lines seen in the opening days. The early balloting ends Saturday.

The numbers clearly favor Democrats. Of the early voters, 58 percent are registered Democrats, although the GOP argues that it can win over some of the conservative Democrats in the state that differ in ideology from their national counterparts. Just 25 percent of voters so far are registered Republicans.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has encouraged all his supporters to vote early to ensure that as many ballots are in before the crush of Election Day. The Republicans launched an early vote tour last week, helping ease a wide gap that the Democrats built in the first days of balloting.

Elections officials expect that some one-third of voters in North Carolina will go to the polls early. Already, more than 19 percent of registered voters have gone to one-stop sites.
The data also shows signs that Obama is drawing a historic number of blacks to the election. About 28 percent of all voters thus far are black, even though they're just 21 percent of the population and made up only 19 percent of state's overall 2004 vote.

Another 113,000 voters have cast an absentee ballot, including 4,700 in the military and 2,179 people overseas.