I voted early at the Park Expo and Conference Center on Tuesday night, Oct. 27, and I’ll keep my review short: it was very easy. Everybody was nice. I was in and out in five minutes.
That’s one voter on one night at one of Mecklenburg County’s 25 early-voting sites. But it’s a good excuse to look at the bigger picture, because a lot of my neighbors have been doing the same thing. With three days of early voting left, the county has already passed its in-person early-vote total from the entire 2022 midterm.
Mecklenburg is already past 2022
Through Wednesday, Oct. 28, 215,884 Mecklenburg voters had cast accepted ballots in person at early-voting sites. That’s according to Uptown Informer’s analysis of the N.C. State Board of Elections absentee and early-voting data file, which was updated early Thursday morning.
That’s about 61% more than at the same point in 2022, when 133,890 people had voted early in person through the Wednesday before Election Day, according to the state’s 2022 file. It’s also more than the 187,944 people who voted early in person in Mecklenburg during all of the 2022 early-voting period, a figure The Charlotte Observer reported.
It’s still short of a presidential year: 343,118 at the same point in 2024. Daily totals have climbed all week, from 18,232 on Monday to 18,578 on Tuesday and 19,255 on Wednesday, according to the state file.
Early voting in Mecklenburg surges in final week before Election Day. See our map https://t.co/8AxaqZ5HIh
— The Charlotte Observer (@theobserver) October 27, 2026
Who’s voting early
Party registration doesn’t tell you how anyone voted. It does show who is turning out. Here’s the breakdown of Mecklenburg’s in-person early voters through Oct. 28, from the state data:
- Registered Democrats: 106,742 (49.4%), up from 61,200 (45.7%) at the same point in 2022
- Unaffiliated voters: 76,833 (35.6%), up from 41,390 (30.9%)
- Registered Republicans: 31,659 (14.7%), compared with 30,941 (23.1%)
The number of Republicans voting early is about the same as in 2022. Their share of the total is lower because Democratic and unaffiliated turnout has grown much faster. In Wednesday’s batch alone, Republicans made up 17.7% of Mecklenburg’s in-person early voters.
The early electorate is also a little younger. Voters 18 to 25 made up 7.4% of in-person early voters through Oct. 28, compared with 4.1% at the same point in 2022. Black voters made up 32.6%, compared with 27.9% four years ago.
Statewide, 2,073,468 North Carolinians had voted early in person through Wednesday, about 41% ahead of the same point in 2022, according to the state data. Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political scientist who tracks the numbers daily, found the same 41% jump in in-person ballots in his Thursday analysis. He put statewide in-person voters at 40% Democrats, 35% unaffiliated and 26% Republicans, and noted that unaffiliated voters were the largest group in Wednesday’s statewide batch. His caution is worth repeating: these numbers show who has voted, not how. Republicans have historically made up a bigger share of Election Day voters.
A quiet site, by the numbers
My five-minute visit lines up with the data. Park Expo, at 800 Briar Creek Road, has been one of the county’s least busy early-voting sites. It had 5,078 ballots through Wednesday, 22nd of 25 sites, according to the state file. On Tuesday, the day I voted, 508 people voted there.
The busiest site is the former University City Library, with 15,396 ballots. It’s the site many UNC Charlotte students have been walking to because there’s no early-voting site on campus this year. South County Regional Library on Rea Road is second, with 14,948.
Campus-area sites are also busy with same-day registration. Gerry Cohen, a Wake County elections board member, posted that the UNC Charlotte area ranked among the state’s top six sites:
NC has had 17,148 same-day registrations at its 368 early voting sites thu Oct 26, top six sites are on or near college campuses, respectively NC State, NC Central, NCA&T/UNC-G/Bennett, ECU, UNC-Charlotte and Winston-Salem State, 4 of the 8 listed colleges are HBCUs #ncpol pic.x.com/C1LSy1Sw6Y
— Gerry Cohen (@gercohen) October 27, 2026
If you haven’t voted yet
- Early voting ends at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, according to the State Board of Elections. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
- Hours: Every Mecklenburg early-voting site, including Park Expo, is open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, according to the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
- Any site works during early voting. You can vote at any of the 25 sites in the county. The full list is on the county board’s site, and you can also use the state’s early-voting site search. On Election Day, you have to vote at your assigned precinct.
- You can still register. If you’ve lived in the county for at least 30 days before Election Day, you can register and vote in the same trip. Bring proof of where you live, such as a North Carolina driver’s license or a current utility bill, bank statement or paycheck showing your name and address. Most voters can’t do this on Election Day.
- Bring a photo ID. You’ll be asked to show one when you check in. Most people use a driver’s license, but a passport, an approved student ID and several other IDs also count. If you can’t show one, you can still vote by filling out an ID Exception Form.
- Wait times: We couldn’t find a live wait-time tracker from the Mecklenburg board. If you have questions, call the board at 704-336-2133.
For what’s on the ballot and how Election Day works, read our guide for Mecklenburg voters and our explainer on the 2026 Charlotte bonds.
Early voting polls are officially open in Mecklenburg County! Here's how to find voting locations, hours and what you need to bring before heading out to vote 🗳ï¸âœ… https://t.co/ifSaqUnrxF pic.x.com/t3IHrmIT3Z
— WCNC Charlotte (@wcnc) October 15, 2026
My two cents? If you’ve been putting it off, it may take less time than you think. Mine took five minutes.
