More than 353,000 North Carolina voters cast ballots in strong first day of early voting

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- North Carolina's elections board said Friday that 353,166 people cast ballots in the state's first day of early voting.

It exceeded the 348,599 votes cast on the first day of early voting in the 2020 presidential election and was more than double the number cast on the first day in 2016.

An additional 75,133 absentee ballots had been cast by Thursday, according to the state elections board. That brought the total vote Thursday to 428,299.

Early, in-person voting party registration was 36.3% Democrats and 34.7% Republicans, with 28.6% independents.

On Tuesday Georgia shattered voting records on the first day of voting there with well over 300,000 ballots cast, 125% higher than the 2020 first day votes.

Gabe Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state's office called it a spectacular turnout.

Current polls are within the margin of error in Georgia as well, with Trump holding a nearly 2 point lead.