Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against North Carolina regarding changes to the state’s voting laws, which the department says are discriminatory against minority voters.
One of the main focuses of the lawsuit is the shortening of early voting days from three weeks before Election Day to two weeks. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the law could limit minority voter turnout.
The Daily Tar Heel decided to look at voter data from the 2012 general election, tracking the voter turnout for each state House and Senate District to determine the amount of early votes cast for winning candidates out of overall votes.
What was discovered is that Democrats benefited from early voting more than Republicans. Fifty-four percent of all votes cast in elections for winning N.C. House Democrats were early votes, while 20.3 percent of all votes cast in elections where Republicans won were early votes. Similarly, 51.7 percent of all votes cast for winning Senate Democrats were early votes, while 35.9 percent of votes in elections where Republicans won were early votes.
This means in districts where Democrats win, the majority of votes cast are done before Election Day. Meanwhile, in Republican districts, the amount of early voters is not negligible — but is not the majority.
Click on the images below for maps of state House and Senate District elections from the 2012 general election, showing the ratio of early votes to overall registered voters. The darker the color, the larger amount of early voters in a district compared to the total number of registered voters. Click a district to learn if early voter turnout versus overall voters as well as if the official voted and/or served as a sponsor.
House
Senate
Brian Fanney, director of enterprise at the Daily Tar Heel, contributed in compiling the data and creating the map for this piece.
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