Early numbers in NC seem to bode well for Democrats
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Traffic was thick again Friday at the early voting site in downtown Raleigh.
Bright green tape marks the sidewalk. Polls workers are using it for crowd control.
So far, Hillary Clinton's North Carolina campaign offices have to be optimistic about the numbers coming out of the state.
Democrats this year are just barely behind Republicans in the number of absentee ballots returned.
But this is a number Republicans historically dominate.
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At this point in 2012, Republicans returned over 34,000 absentee ballots. This year, it's under 20,000. That's a troubling number for team Trump.
"This is by far the most important vote you ever cast for anyone at any time," Donald Trump told supporters Friday afternoon in Fletcher, a small western North Carolina town.
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Trump's latest North Carolina campaign swing is timed to help to motivate his base on this second full day of in-person voting.
Thursday, more than 164,000 ballots were cast statewide. That's just under the 167,000 votes cast on the first day early voting in 2012.
Clinton is counting on the tradition of Democrats dominating the early voting period.
Local activists are trying to make the most of this early voting period.
Saturday morning at 10, the state NAACP and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People are holding a Souls to the Polls event starting with a rally at First Presbyterian Church of Durham, then a march to go vote early.
