I voted at the Planetarium (2d floor this time) at about 12:30 pm and I was voter 235. There were 12-15 people waiting in line and another 8 to 10 completing their ballots. I saw two people who were registering. Best of all --- most of the voters that I saw fit the college-age demographic!
I don't think I've ever seen this many folks on the first half day! Also, there was plenty of excitement outside with the various campaigns represented. The Obama group had lots of folks working and I saw Kevin Wolff (R) out there campaigning for his wife (D)!
Issues:
Comments
interactive vote tracker
If you go to http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/ and look in the right pane, you will see a nearly realtime statewide early voting tracker, for instance at 4:02 pm:
Absentee By Mail Ballots Returned: 5,466
Absentee Onestop Ballots Cast: 9,501
It will be interesting...
to see how the election day statistics compare to the early voting statistics. As of Thursday the 24th it looks like about 10 to 1 Dems/Repubs voting early.
Cheers, K
I had so much fun voting I'd like to do it a few more times.
Report from Carrboro
19 days later
who knows what could happen?
The Wolffs
I don't get what's up with the Wolffs - they're running for the same seat, but in different parties. So if she wins, they run against each other (and I bet she'll drop out, you wait!) and if she doesn't, he gets to use her signs, since they don't have their first names on them. Someone go ask one of them, ok? (I'd love to, but I'm on Duke's campus all day for work).
-Bryn
Why bother?
Visited again...
Daily Tar Heel
Wow
Early voting stats first 2 days
The State Board of Elections has lots of files on its website (all available to the public). There is a daily absentee ballot file that one can import into Excel and sort -- here is what I got:
statewide early voting first three days: 32,086 (five counties had voting on Saturday).
Orange County:
967 Democrats voting
92 Republicans voting
270 Unaffiliated voters choosing Democratic ballot
9 Unaffiliated voters choosing Republican ballot
8 Unaffiliated voters choosing an unaffiliated ballot (nonpartisan and transfer tax)
1346 TOTAL
Orange early vote totals
Under the Dome has just posted on the huge surge in one stop early voting statewide:
"One-stop voting is rivaling turnout for a general election. According to statistics compiled by the State Board of Elections at the request of Dome, the five-day total of ballots cast at one-stop sites is 45,429. That's slightly less than the 57,250 for the five-day period between Oct. 19-23, 2006. But that was a general election. By comparison, the 2006 primary saw just 7,688 votes cast at one-stop sites between April 13-17. Put another way: One-stop voting turnout so far is six times what it was at a comparable point in the last primary."
The spreadsheet they posted shows an even bigger jump in Orange for onestops in the first five days (Thurs-Monday):
2006 primary: 36
2006 general: 500
2008 primary: 2173
Orange with 2,173 is the 4th highest in the state, with Cumberland leading at 2,851 and Buncombe and Durham also higher than Orange. Orange is 60 times the 2006 primary turnout, compared to the state average six-fold increase.
This is Great!
More early voting stats
Total Early Votes statewide as of Tuesday: 72896
Total in Orange County: 2828
Democrats 2044
Republicans 199
Unaff casting Dem ballot 536
Unaff casting Repub ballot 23
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 26
Top precincts:
Mason Farm 214
Country Club 188
East Franklin 180
Lincoln 109
Patterson 101
early voting as of Thurs
Total Early Votes statewide as of Thursday close: 99016
Total in Orange County: 4738
Democrats 3365
Republicans 322
Unaff casting Dem ballot 963
Unaff casting Repub ballot 43
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 34
Top 5 precincts:
Mason Farm 311
Country Club 284
East Franklin 235
Patterson 188
Lincoln 173
H-S story on eraly voting
http://www.heraldsun.com/orange/10-946130.cfm?
excerpts below, numbers are as of Friday
Early voting as of Monday
Total Early Votes statewide as of Monday close: 164286
Total in Orange County: 7389
Democrats 5305
Republicans 475
Unaff casting Dem ballot 1516
Unaff casting Repub ballot 51
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 42
Top 8 precincts:
Mason Farm 491
Country Club 425
East Franklin 346
Patterson 300
Colonial Heights 261
N. Carrboro 242
Weaver Dairy 236
Lincoln 236
=======
388 mail-in absentee ballots have also been received
1106 early votes Tuesday
early voting 10,071 as of Weds
Total Early Votes statewide as of Monday close: 261,505 (48,800 new on Wednesday)
Total in Orange County: 10,071 (1,576 new on Wednesday)
Democrats 7308
Republicans 627
Unaff casting Dem ballot 2017
Unaff casting Repub ballot 69
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 50
Top 10 precincts:
Mason Farm 546
Country Club 498
Patterson 458
East Franklin 407
N Carrboro 350
Weaver Dairy 343
Colonial Heights 331
Hogan Farms, St. Johns, Town Hall, each 290
=======
417 mail-in absentee ballots have been received. 524 mail-in ballots are still outstanding (deadline for receipt Monday 5 pm)
early voting 11,801 as of Thurs
Total Early Votes statewide as of Monday close: 320840 (59,335 new on Wednesday, new daily high)
Total in Orange County: 11,781 (1,730 new on Thursday, new daily high)
Democrats 8563
Republicans 730
Unaff casting Dem ballot 2394
Unaff casting Repub ballot 72
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 52
REMINDER of early voting sites:
Orange County Public Library Conference Room, 300 W. Tryon St, Hillsborough; Carrboro Town Hall, 301 W. Main St, Carrboro; Morehead Planetarium, 250 E. Franklin St, Chapel Hill: Friday 9-5, Saturday 9-1.
Robert and Pearl Seymour Senior Center, 2551 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill : Saturday 9-1. This site NOT open Friday, May 2.
You must be in line by the closing hour in order to vote at that site.
Thanks Gerry, and a question
Do you have the numbers for early voting at each site? I'm particularly
interested in the Seymour Center and Hillsoborough.
sorry Joe
So I walk a mile and a half
So I walk a mile and a half to the Morehead Planetarium to vote early and I get there at 2:45 and I discover early voting closed at 1. Yeah, I guess I should have checked this site to see the hours but I just assumed it'd be open on Saturday afternoon.
It seems it's open 9-5 Monday thru Friday and 9-1 on Saturday. Shouldn't the hours be longer on Saturday instead of shorter? I mean, Monday thru Friday is when most people have to work and don't have time to vote. It ought to be open 8 am to 8 pm both Saturday and Sunday. I doubt I'll be able get to my polling place on Tuesday so I guess I just won't get to vote.
So the question I now have is, is there early voting in November too or just in May?
November
early voting thru Friday
Total Early Votes statewide as of Friday close: 399,515 (82,000 +/- Friday, new daily high)
Total in Orange County: 14,207 as of Fri (2,625 new on Friday, new daily high)
Democrats 10295 72.5%
Republicans 864 6.1%
Unaff casting Dem ballot 2885 20.3%
Unaff casting Repub ballot 106 0.7%
Unaff casting nonpartisan ballot 56 0.6%
other county totals as of Friday: Durham 17,797; Mecklenburg 36,501
last day
Praise is due
17,243 total Orange early vote FINAL
For you numbers junkies:
Total early votes statewide: 466,396
Total Orange County early votes: 17,243 (3,036 Saturday, new high)
detailed breakout for Orange, first table by party of the voter (showing which primary the voter cast ballots in), second table showing the party primary the votes were cast in, the third table showing which party unaffiliated voters vote in
U in D means unaffiliated voter voted in Democratic Primary
U in R means unaffiliated voter voted in Republican Primary
U in U means unaffiliated voter did not vote in either party primary but asked for nonpartisan ballot (judges, land transfer tax, OC school board)
early votes by precinct
Early votes top 20 precincts (Final)
Patterson 879
Mason Farm* 718
Country Club* 642
North Carrboro 635
Weaver Dairy 596
Hogan Farms 585
St. John 576
East Franklin* 535
Estes Hills 505
Lions Club 497
Orange Grove 494
Town Hall 492
Grady Brown 459
OWASA 443
Dogwood Acres 427
Northside 425
Greenwood* 420
Lincoln* 416
Kings Mill 415
Carrboro 408
* includes campus dorms
% early turnout
Here's the same list but showing the percentage of all registered voters who voted early: