Less than 1 percent of Raleigh voters have cast ballots early in mayor’s race

More voters have cast ballots so far in the runoff election for Raleigh mayor, but the number remains less than 1 percent of registered voters.

A week before Election Day on Nov. 7, about 2,101 people have voted early. That’s up 19.6 percent from the 1,689 voters who had cast ballots a week prior to the Oct. 10 general election.

Incumbent Mayor Nancy McFarlane failed to get the required 50 percent of the vote to secure a fourth term during the general election, so runner-up Charles Francis called for a runoff. During that election, voters also cast ballots for the seven other members of the Raleigh City Council.

Francis is the first viable Democrat to run against McFarlane, who is registered as unaffiliated but has left-leaning ideas.

Early voting for the general election began Oct. 19. Despite an uptick, the number of people who have voted early is equal to 0.68 percent of Raleigh’s 305,271 registered voters – 136,175 of them Democrats.

It’s unclear whether the increase in early voting is because more people are casting ballots or because many of the people who participated in the Oct. 10 election are voting earlier than they had before. The Wake County elections board can’t provide that information.

Aside from this being the first competitive mayoral race in years, it’s also the first time the city has paid to open early voting sites. Raleigh residents could vote early in previous City Council elections, but only at the county’s elections board headquarters on Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh.

There are now five early voting sites in addition to the elections board headquarters. Their hours are listed on the elections board’s website.

The county expects to spend about $60,100 to run Raleigh’s additional early voting sites – a cost that will be billed to the city. Charles Hellwig, chairman of the Wake County Republican Party, says the cost of offering the extra early voting sites isn’t worth it.

Hellwig thinks the small increase in voter turnout is because of the competitiveness of the race – not logistics. “The factors that increase turnout are the candidates, the competitiveness of the race, voter interest, and the amount of money spent,” he said.

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Less than 1 percent of Raleigh voters have cast ballots early in mayor’s race."