With the first ballots in, NC leads nation into critical midterm elections

Joel Brown Image
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
With first ballots in, NC leads way into critical midterm elections
In Wake County, 11,000 voters requested a ballot, the most requests in North Carolina. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in ballots played a huge factor during the presidential election in 2020.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Voting is officially underway for November's crucial midterm elections. North Carolina voters have filled out and sent back 204 ballots as of Tuesday, to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. That's out of the 53,000 mail-in ballots sent out so far.

The NCBOE began mailing out absentee ballots across the state last Friday.

In Wake County, 11,000 voters requested a ballot, the most requests in North Carolina. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in ballots played a huge factor during the presidential election in 2020.

For what it could mean this November, ABC11 spoke to ABC News Political Director Rick Klein.

"It's interesting because this is a big shift in voting patterns across the country," Klein said. "North Carolina is at the forefront of this--among the first states, if not the first state to be actually voting.

WATCH: Full interview with ABC News Political Director Rick Klein

Full interview: ABC11's Joel Brown and ABC News Political Director Rick Klein discuss the upcoming midterm elections.

"What's interesting in part about it is that it sort of locks in vote preferences early," he added. "So whatever trends are going on, however things are happening in people's lives at a particular time, those are votes that are for all intents and purposes locked in."

It is not too late to request a mail-in ballot. You just need to make sure you're registered to vote.

The deadline to register is Oct. 14.

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