Early Vote Day Report: Day 6
Data through Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026
Snapshot
Through Tuesday, the sixth day of early voting, North Carolinians have cast 924,160 ballots in person and by mail. That is 38% more than at the same point in 2022, and 11.7% of all registered voters. 186,117 voted in person on Tuesday, 40% more than on 2022's sixth day of early voting (133,127).
Top takeaways
- Republicans had their best day yet on Tuesday, and still ran well behind 2022. Tuesday's 188,540 ballots were 40.2% Democratic, 25.6% Republican and 34.0% unaffiliated. Taken one day at a time, days 1 to 5 ran from 9% to 24% Republican and 42% to 52% Democratic. On 2022's Tuesday, the split was 37.8% Democratic, 33.1% Republican and 28.9% unaffiliated.
- The Democratic turnout edge widened to 8.8 points on Tuesday. 17.4% of registered Democrats have voted and 8.6% of registered Republicans; after Monday the gap was 7.6. On 2022's Tuesday it held at 1.4.
- Tuesday's voters were older than on the days before. 53.3% were 65 or older, against 51.7% on the days before; 21.4% were Black, against 22.9%. On 2022's Tuesday: 55.4% and 18.0%.
- Among the seats to watch, the Democratic turnout edge grew most on Tuesday in HD-115 and HD-74. Their gaps between the share of registered Democrats and Republicans who have voted grew +2.5 and +2.0 points, to 15.8 and 11.6. It grew least in HD-73 (+0.7, to 5.5).
