Voters are casting early ballots at a brisk pace for a non-presidential year, with men leading the way.
Even though they make up about 45 percent of all registered voters, men have cast more than half the ballots in the first four days of the early voting, according to an analysis of State Board of Elections data.
The male turnout is a little unusual; turnout for women is typically higher.
Early voting started Thursday. Through Monday, 111,533 people had voted at one-stop sites. Early voting during the last midterm election in 2006 saw about 375,000 cast ballots over two weeks.
Both parties have put an emphasis on getting their supporters to the polls before Nov. 2.
Two years ago, Barack Obama held a substantial lead by the time early voting ended, and more than half the total ballots for the election had been cast. His advantage turned out to be insurmountable, and he narrowly won the state.
Republicans vowed this year not to let Democrats leap to an early lead.
Though they are 73 percent of all those registered, white voters cast 81 percent of the early ballots through Monday. African-Americans, who are 21 percent of all voters, had cast 17 percent of early votes.
Registered Democrats hold an edge in early voting turnout so far, with 45 percent versus 38 percent for Republicans and 17 percent for unaffiliated voters. Republicans make up about 32 percent of those registered, and Democrats about 45 percent.
During early voting in the midterm election of 2006, registered Democrats cast 49 percent of the ballots and Republicans 36 percent. (The numbers exclude Guilford County, because early voting data were not included in State Board of Elections data for that year.)
Early voting still has a long way to go; not all early polling sites are open. In Wake, for example, the board of elections office is the only place for county residents to go until Friday, when eight more locations are set to open.
Jordan Shaw, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said the GOP is optimistic. "We seem to be doing better from a party standpoint than we've ever done before," he said. "We're doing better than at this point in 2008."
Democrats have focused on getting new voters from 2008 to come back this year. Last month, a special push for college-age voters by the Obama administration included a presidential speech beamed to N.C. Central University in Durham.
According to an analysis of absentee voters by the Civitas Institute, the average age this year is 61.
Andrew Whalen, the state Democratic Party's executive director, said comparing a few days of this year to the presidential year of 2008 is like "comparing apples to rutabagas."
This year's turnout is not going to replicate 2008, he said, and it's much too early to be able to pick out trends.
By the time early voting started this year, 1 million voters had been called in the Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort, he said.
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