Early tallies show black voters turning out in big numbers in North Carolina

Black voters in North Carolina are casting early ballots at a significantly faster pace than in the past two midterm cycles, providing a potentially encouraging sign for Democrats as they fight to hold a congressional district that Republicans redrew to favor the GOP.

More than 279,688 black voters have cast a ballot as of Thursday, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. At this point in 2022 and 2018, the early-voting number among black people stood around roughly 170,000, according to data provided by the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation’s Brendan Higgins. North Carolina is one of the few states that reports race and Hispanic ethnicity data in early-voting totals.