Early Vote Day Report: Day 3
Data through Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
Snapshot
Through Saturday, the third day of early voting, North Carolinians have cast 501,321 ballots in person and by mail. That is 38% more than at the same point in 2022, and 6.4% of all registered voters. Most counties kept their early voting sites closed on Saturday: 38 opened (38 on 2022's Saturday). Those counties took 61,353 ballots in person, against 35,027 on 2022's Saturday.
Top takeaways
- Saturday was Republicans' weakest day yet. Saturday's 62,844 ballots from the 38 counties that opened were 45.2% Democratic, 16.2% Republican and 38.3% unaffiliated. Taken one day at a time, days 1 and 2 ran from 20% to 22% Republican and 44% to 47% Democratic. On 2022's Saturday, the split was 42.7% Democratic, 26.1% Republican and 31.0% unaffiliated.
- The Democratic turnout edge widened to 5.4 points on Saturday. 9.8% of registered Democrats have voted and 4.3% of registered Republicans; after Friday the gap was 4.7. On 2022's Saturday it moved +0.2 points, to 1.0.
- Saturday's voters were younger than on the days before. 30.1% were 65 or older, against 55.6% on the days before; 11.1% were under 30, against 6.2%. On 2022's Saturday: 32.3% and 8.4%.
- Among the seats to watch, the Democratic turnout edge grew most on Saturday in HD-105 and HD-115. Their gaps between the share of registered Democrats and Republicans who have voted grew +1.9 and +1.8 points, to 7.9 and 10.0. It held in SD-7, at 4.9.
