The N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation’s most recent analysis of voter registration in North Carolina came up with some interesting changes during the past four years. From Election Day 2008 election through last Saturday, the ranks of both Democrats and Republicans have shrunk: Democrats by slightly more than 100,000; Republicans by about 4,000.
Meantime, unaffiliateds have gone up significantly, by more than 229,000.
There are nearly 6.4 million registered voters statewide — a gain of 134,000 from 2008.
In percentage terms, Democrats still hold the lead, with 43.2 percent of voters, compared with the GOP’s 31.2 percent and 25.3 percent unaffiliated. But unaffiliated voters are on the rise, which may suggest that more North Carolinians are open to persuasion from both major parties. It’s also possible that some former Yellow Dog Democrats are shedding their party affiliations but aren’t willing to commit to the GOP just yet.
Also of interest, the report points out that the 2008 Obama campaign’s get out the vote efforts were a big success: Democrats owned one-stop early voting, signing up slightly more than half of all same-day registrants. Republicans and unaffiliateds essentially split the rest.
Read the entire report here.
