North Carolina voter registration numbers continue to favor Republican, unaffiliated

All North Carolina political parties gained voter registrations last week, with those registering as unaffiliated and Republicans outpacing Democrats.

Voter registrations continued the long-running trend through Oct. 8, with unaffiliated registrations increasing 4,729 during the week, while 1,460 registered as Republicans, 921 as Democrats, 98 as Libertarians, and 48 Green Party registrations.

Wake County posted the most new registrations over the week at 1,002, which included 683 unaffiliated registrations, 257 Democrats, 40 Republicans 15 Libertarians, and 7 Green Party registrations.

Mecklenburg County’s 648 registrations was the second-highest total. They included 388 unaffiliated registrations, 177 Democrats, 77 Republicans, two Libertarians, and four Green Party registrations.

Republicans fared better than Democrats in 66 other counties.

Total voter registrations now stand at 7,389,159, with 2,625,441 or 35% registered unaffiliated, 2,494,652 or 34% registered as Democrats, and 2,218,884 or 30% Republican registrations. Libertarian and Green Party registrations combined total less than 1%, with 50,054 for the former and 128 for the latter.

Broken down by race, 65% of registered voters are white, 20% are black, and 14% identify as "other."

Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, noted in a post to Twitter on Monday "the pattern for the five weeks from early September is similar to 2018" when "looking at just the big 3 registration changes."

Since Sept. 3, unaffiliated registrations increased 25,512, while Republican registrations are up 7,052, and Democrat registrations increased 5,310. In 2018, when Republicans won 77% of U.S. House seats, registrations during the same time frame totaled 22,450 unaffiliated, 7,726 Republican, and 6,253 Democrat, according to Jackson.

Overall, Republican registrations have outpaced Democrat registrations in 87 counties since early September.

North Carolina voter registration continues until Oct. 14, after which only same-day registration during one-stop early voting is available, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As the final registrations come in, the state has accepted 23,015 absentee votes through Monday.

The total includes ballots from 11,800 registered Democrats, 7,487 voters registered as unaffiliated, 3,675 registered Republicans, 50 Libertarians, and three Green Party voters.

Those figures translate into 51% of accepted absentee votes from Democrats, 32% from unaffiliated voters, and nearly 16% from Republicans.