Two million eight hundred thousand North Carolinians voted early for this year’s midterm election, up 31% over 2022. One group fueling that surge is Black voters. They make up 19% of those registered in North Carolina.
Black voters cast nearly 600,000 ballots during early voting. Jovita Lee Miller says that’s about a 50% increase from the 2022 midterm. She’s deputy director of North Carolina Black Alliance, a Raleigh-based nonprofit working to advance communities through education, mobilization and advocacy. She says this year’s surge follows months of deep canvassing efforts by nonpartisan organizations across the state.
"Because you can do so much during early voting, like same-day registration, fix something, folks move all the time," she says. "I mean, so many things contribute [to] why somebody's voter registration may be a little wonky. So you can resolve those issues in real time during early voting, just in case there's any issues, because on election day, same-day registration is not an option."
She says affordability concerns at the federal and state levels are top of mind for many Black voters and are driving them in record numbers to the polls.