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“Right now, the whole state is seeing a record turnout from four years ago,� Burke County Director of Elections Kenny Rhyne said.

Democrats appear to be slightly outpacing Republicans in early voting. Democratic voters have cast 589,084 ballots, while Republicans have cast 578,527 ballots so far, according to data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Unaffiliated voters are just behind the two established political parties, with 530,134 ballots cast, the data shows.

And women are going to vote early in bigger numbers than men. It shows woman leading men by more than 100,000 ballots cast, according to state data.

Early voting ends Nov. 2. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Burke County

As of the end of voting on Tuesday, 14,200 voters had cast a ballot during early voting in Burke County, said Kenny Rhyne, director of elections for Burke County.

He said, additionally, 2,028 civilian mail-in ballots, 93 overseas ballots and 54 military ballots have been sent out. Of those, the county board of elections has received back 462 ballots, he said, which puts the total of early voting ballots cast at 14,662. There are 60,602 registered voters in the county, he said.

Like many counties across the region and state, Burke voters who show up at one of the five early voting sites in the county are facing long lines. Rhyne said wait times are anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. He said the longest wait times have been at the Board of Elections office and the Burke County Senior Center in Â鶹´«Ã½.

Rhyne said that so far, there have been no issues during early voting.

Catawba County

In Catawba County, which has more than 116,000 registered voters, 29,323 ballots had been cast as of Tuesday evening, said Amanda Duncan, director of elections for the county. She said her office has mailed out more than 5,000 ballots to voters who requested them. She said they have received back more than 1,600 of those ballots.

She said this is the biggest early voting turnout that she’s ever seen.

In the 2016 presidential election, Catawba County saw 48,767 ballots cast by the end of early voting, Duncan said.

On Oct. 17, the first day of early voting, some Catawba County voters waited up to 40 minutes to vote, Duncan said. She said Tuesday seemed to be busier than the first day but voters seem to be happy even if they’re having to wait.

“So yeah, big turnout, and it’s good,� Duncan said. “I like to see the voters. And they’re happy. They’re not mad because they have to stand in line. They all seem to be happy, and they’re just wanting to vote.�

Duncan said around 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and after 5 p.m. are the busiest times of the day for voting. She said the numbers dwindle after 7 p.m.

Early voting sites open at 8 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

McDowell County

In McDowell County, 7,668 voters had cast their ballot as of 2:43 p.m. Wednesday.

Those numbers include 268 absentee-by-mail ballots, said Jane Dale Propst, deputy director of elections for McDowell County. She said 1,001 mail-in ballots were sent out to voters who requested one.

In 2016 early voting, McDowell voters cast 13,279 ballots. During the 2020 presidential election, 17,289 ballots were cast during early voting, Propst said.

McDowell County Board of Elections, located at 2458 NC 226 S., Marion, is the only early voting site this year. The Old Fort early voting site was damaged by the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene.

Propst said the longest anyone has waited to vote has been around 15 minutes. She said there was no line to vote as of around 3 p.m. Wednesday. And there is still plenty of time for people to vote early, she added.

Iredell County

In Iredell County, 29,744 ballots had been cast at five early voting sites as of Tuesday evening.

Iredell has 137,157 voters, according to the state board of elections.