Early Vote Day Report: Day 5
Data through Monday, Oct. 19, 2026
Snapshot
Through Monday, the fifth day of early voting, North Carolinians have cast 733,299 ballots in person and by mail. That is 38% more than at the same point in 2022, and 9.3% of all registered voters. Most counties kept their early voting sites closed over the weekend (39 opened on Saturday; 8 opened on Sunday). With all 100 open again on Monday, 201,918 voted in person, about as many as on the first day (203,243), and 43% more than on 2022's Monday (141,489).
Top takeaways
- Republicans had their best day yet on Monday, and still ran well behind 2022. Monday's 205,247 ballots were 42.3% Democratic, 23.7% Republican and 33.8% unaffiliated. Taken one day at a time, days 1 to 4 ran from 9% to 22% Republican and 43% to 52% Democratic. On 2022's Monday, the split was 38.7% Democratic, 32.5% Republican and 28.7% unaffiliated.
- The Democratic turnout edge widened to 7.5 points on Monday. 14.1% of registered Democrats have voted and 6.5% of registered Republicans; after Sunday the gap was 5.9. On 2022's Monday it moved +0.1 points, to 1.4.
- Monday's voters were older than on the days before. 53.6% were 65 or older, against 51.0% on the days before; 6.8% were under 30, against 7.3%. On 2022's Monday: 55.9% and 4.3%.
- Among the seats to watch, the Democratic turnout edge grew most on Monday in HD-115 and HD-26. Their gaps between the share of registered Democrats and Republicans who have voted grew +3.2 and +2.6 points, to 13.2 and 8.1. It grew least in HD-73 (+1.0, to 4.8).
