North Carolina Officials Report Record Turnout for First Day of Early Voting

More than 353,000 ballots were cast in North Carolina on Thursday, a state record for the first day of early voting, signaling intense enthusiasm in a battleground state still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene and where 16 presidential electoral votes are up for grabs. But early insights into the significance of such high voter turnout were unclear.

Christopher A. Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., and Michael Bitzer, an expert on North Carolina politics at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., cautioned in a blog post against reading too much into the data.

Using early voting data as a way to gauge who will win or lose the election, they said, is “like bringing a fishing pole to a home run derby — it’s just the wrong tool for the job.”

Still, Mr. Cooper said on X that the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina may significantly affect turnout. For example, in Buncombe County, which includes the large liberal city of Asheville, more than 33,000 ballots were cast on the first day of early voting in 2020. On Thursday, however, there were only about 8,200 cast in the county.

The state’s board of elections approved several emergency measures after about 10 early voting sites in western North Carolina had sustained substantial damage or accessibility issues. On Thursday, at a public library in Black Mountain, N.C., a purplish town in left-leaning Buncombe County where roughly 8,500 residents were still recovering from the aftermath of Helene, a line of voters stretched out the door.

More than 400 early-voting sites opened as scheduled on Thursday, including 76 sites in the 25 western counties hardest hit by Helene, according to the state’s board of elections. Only four could not open.

“I know that thousands of North Carolinians lost so much in this storm. Their lives will never be the same after this tragedy,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state board of elections, said in a news conference on Thursday. “But one thing Helene did not take from western North Carolinians is the right to vote in this important election.”

The previous record for the first day of early voting was in 2020, when more than 348,000 ballots were cast. Former President Donald J. Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by 1.3 percentage points, and his campaign views the state this year as a must-win.

Early voting in North Carolina ends Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. Democrats have poured resources into the state, hoping Vice President Kamala Harris can become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina since 2008.