March 4, 2020/Press

Democratic Votes Outpace 2016 Turnout as Democratic Enthusiasm Continues Through Super Tuesday

Raleigh – After more than half a million people cast Democratic ballots during early vote ahead of yesterday’s Super Tuesday contest, Democratic enthusiasm continued through election day. After Tuesday night, nearly 200,000 more votes were cast in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary than in the 2016 primary, according to data collected by the State Board of Elections.

Democrats in North Carolina and across the country turned out in record numbers to vote yesterday. “In North Carolina, turnout increased from more than 1.1 million with all votes counted to more than 1.3 million with 99 percent of precincts reporting,” leading Vox to proclaim: “The Democratic voter surge was very real on Super Tuesday.”

Voters are also energized to support candidates who will fight for pocket issues like job creation, affordable health care and investments in public education. In an NBC exit poll, health care was named as the number one issue for voters — an issue that voters overwhelmingly trust Democrats on more than Republicans.

“We are seeing incredible enthusiasm and motivation among North Carolina Democrats, and Democrats across the country, which is setting up our entire ticket for big wins in November” said North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Meredith Cuomo.

Vox: The Democratic voter surge was very real on Super Tuesday
March 4, 2020
By German Lopez

  • But after Super Tuesday’s races, Democrats can likely put those doubts behind them.In most states, voter turnout was significantly higher this year than it was in 2016:
  • It’s unclear what’s driving this, although polls have shown that voters are enthusiastic about casting a ballot compared to 2016.
  • But it’s certainly not bad news for Democrats that voters seem excited about the primaries.


N&O: Nearly 800,000 early voters in NC — mainly Democrats — already had their Election Day
By Lucille Sheman 
March 1, 2020

  • More than half a million people voted in the Democratic primary, while some 274,000 cast a Republican ballot, according to the latest numbers.
  • This year, early voters — in-person and by mail — surpassed those in the 2016 presidential primary by more than 68,000 voters, according to the most recent numbers released by the board. An increase of nearly 100,000 more in-person early voters drove that growth.
  • More than 47% of early voters this year were registered Democrats, according to state Board of Elections data. Nearly 27% were unaffiliated, and 25.6% were registered Republicans. Those splits were slightly different in 2016, where nearly 45% of early voters were registered Democrats, nearly 32% Republican and 23% unaffiliated.