RALEIGH, N.C. – On Tuesday, which was National Voter Registration Day, events took place all over North Carolina. With less than 50 days to go until the general election, the state is likely to play a major role in deciding who wins the White House.
Lily Barnett, a senior at Meredith College, was one of the students who told her friends to sign up to vote, pointing out that young people could have a big impact on the results of the election.
“People our age don’t vote as often as people other age groups do, so we’re doing everything we can to be heard,” she said. “North Carolina could give or take a vote.” It really matters that we vote.
North Carolina is seeing more people sign up to vote as the election gets closer. Click here to learn more about how to register to vote in North Carolina and the important dates: Sign up at https://www.ncsbe.gov/registering
The N.C. State Board of Elections says that the number of people who registered to vote went up by about 19,000. About 55% of those people listed as not belonging to any group.
There have been some big changes to voter registration information since the 2020 election. There are now more unaffiliated voters than registered Democrats and Republicans combined. They make up 37.7 percent of the population. About 31.5% of people are registered as Democrats, and 29.9% are registered as Republicans.
The number of registered Democrats has gone down by about 213,000, the number of registered Republicans has gone up by about 52,000, and the number of people who are not registered with either party has gone up by more than 430,000.
“More and more people think of themselves as independent, at least in their minds.” When they vote, they usually stick to the same choices. “But they think they are more independent,” David McLennan, a state politics expert at Meredith College, said.
U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC 13th) says that more Democrats have signed up to vote since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. This makes him “very optimistic.”
“The signs we’ve seen with voter registration are very positive and show that the campaign has a lot of boost going into November,” he said.
Jason Simmons, chairman of the state Republican Party, said that since the 2016 election, the number of Republicans registered to vote has been growing faster than the number of Democrats registered to vote. Simmons expects this trend to continue.
“Recently, we’ve seen more of what we’ve seen in the past—late-night efforts by both parties to reach out to groups, unaffiliated people, and newcomers to get people registered to vote,” he said.
“What the Democratic Party has shown us about their voter registration numbers doesn’t worry us in any way.” And the number of Republicans continuing to register is higher than the number of Democrats.
About 75% of registered voters in North Carolina went to the polls in 2020, which was a high number of people voting.
That’s what McLennan said 2024 could be more than.
“I believe that the number could even go up from 2020 on.” People from all walks of life seem to be more interested in the race now that Harris is in it. Because of Trump, people have been excited since 2015, he said.
“I believe that everyone is excited.” So, younger people, older people, people from rural areas, people from cities—this election could break all records.