Early Vote Day Report: Day 4
Data through Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026
Snapshot
Through Sunday, the fourth day of early voting, North Carolinians have cast 525,970 ballots in person and by mail. That is 37% more than at the same point in 2022, and 6.7% of all registered voters. Most counties kept their early voting sites closed on Sunday: 7 opened (23 on 2022's Sunday). Those counties took 24,257 ballots in person, against 20,272 on 2022's Sunday.
Top takeaways
- Democrats had their best day yet on Sunday. Sunday's 24,333 ballots from the 7 counties that opened were 51.9% Democratic, 8.9% Republican and 38.9% unaffiliated. Taken one day at a time, days 1 to 3 ran from 16% to 22% Republican and 44% to 47% Democratic. On 2022's Sunday, the split was 48.5% Democratic, 21.0% Republican and 30.3% unaffiliated.
- The Democratic turnout edge widened to 5.9 points on Sunday. 10.3% of registered Democrats have voted and 4.4% of registered Republicans; after Saturday the gap was 5.4. On 2022's Sunday it moved +0.2 points, to 1.3.
- Sunday's voters were younger than on the days before. 23.8% were 65 or older, against 52.4% on the days before; 14.2% were under 30, against 6.9%. On 2022's Sunday: 30.0% and 10.6%.
- Among the seats to watch, the Democratic turnout edge grew most on Sunday in HD-37 and HD-35. Their gaps between the share of registered Democrats and Republicans who have voted grew +1.3 and +1.3 points, to 7.8 and 8.7. It held in SD-34, at 4.3.
