Early polling serves eager voters

Friday saw more than 130,000 ballots cast statewide. The second day of early voting set a second record for turnout. The 150,000+ ballots cast Thursday were a record for the first day as well.

Historically, early voting has favored Democrats, and that was the case again on Thursday. According to the State Board of Elections, 57 percent of those who cast ballots were registered Democrats, but registration does not determine how any individual votes.

Tiamwei Xu said he was registered as a Republican but was not planning to vote a straight ticket.

Charles Wadelington was going the opposite way. "I might just do anything but I'm basically Democratic," he said.

"I register Republican, but that's just so I can vote in the primaries without a problem," said Linda Pollock. She came out early in hopes to end the campaign calls to her house.

"I'm tired of the robo-calls," she said. "I want to be able to say quit bothering me, I've already voted."

Then there were those who were certain of their choice and proud to share it.

"I'm very excited about voting for President Obama," said Ellen Shepard.

"I want to vote for president – Romney for president," countered Mark Cesare.{{embed href="as

After one day of one-stop voting, 223,177 votes had been cast in North Carolina. That includes those mailed in from military and U.S. citizens outside the state and others who chose to vote via mail. Republicans made up more than half of those who requested a mail-in ballot.

The State Board of Elections also tracks voters by gender, county and race.

The most populous counties – Wake, Mecklenburg and Guilford – saw the highest rate of voter turnout on Thursday. More than 17,000 people cast ballots in Wake County and more of them were women than men. 

While the overall turnout favored Democrats, 31 counties saw registered Republicans outnumber Democrats.

Early voting continues at 350 locations statewide through Nov. 3.