As of 9-21-16, nearly 57,000 absentee mail-in ballots had been requested for North Carolina's general election. Out of that number, a little over 3,500 have been returned and accepted as ballots cast, with nearly 53,000 still outstanding and eligible to be returned and reviewed to be accepted as ballots.
Of the 3,500 accepted ballots, those coming from registered Democrats are still leading (a note/reminder: just because party registration indicates one party does not indicate the likelihood of the individual voting that party, due to the nature of Southern conservative rural Democrats (most likely older voters) being more Republican voters than their own party).Among the accepted ballots, 41 percent are from registered Democrats, 34 percent from registered Republicans, and 25 percent are from registered unaffiliated voters.
In comparison to 2012's same-day party registration totals (the total is 99 percent of the same day from four-years ago), registered Democrats are at 119 percent of their same-day total from 2012, registered unaffiliated voters are 136 percent from four years ago, and registered Republicans are 70 percent of their total voters from 2012.
Registered Democrats are over-performing their 2012 patterns, both by leading their numbers and continuing to lead in the overall numbers. By this point in 2012, registered Republicans were leading the mail-in absentee balloting and would continue to do so for the remainder of the accepted mail-in balloting.
Among the outstanding ballots remaining, the party registration breakdown is: