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The 2024 General Election is less than one week away, but yet over 35 percent of North Carolina’s registered voters have already cast a ballot.

As of Monday (Oct. 28), 2,820,665 votes have been cast statewide. This represents 36.11 percent of the state’s 7,810,764 registered voters.

In-person early voting so far this year continues to exceed previous elections. As of Monday, 2,665,806 ballots have been cast via the early voting method. That is higher than the 2020 (2,404,763) and 2016 (1,546,765) General Elections at the same stage of the voting process.

Meanwhile, an additional 154,859 absentee by mail ballots have been received, bringing the overall total of 2,820,665 votes tabulated thus far.

Of the total votes cast statewide through Oct. 27, 961,871 were by those registered as Republicans, 938,167 by Democrats, and 904,669 by Unaffiliated voters. The remainder were by Libertarian, Green, No Labels, Constitution, We The People, and Justice For All political party voters.

Locally, the number of citizens casting a ballot by the early voting method has nearly doubled since Oct. 21. A combined 15,021 early votes have been recorded at designated locations in Bertie (4,461), Gates (2,250), Hertford (4,328), and Northampton (3,982) counties. As of last week at this time, a combined 7,881 early votes had been cast in the four local counties.

Adding in the absentee by mail ballots counted through Oct. 27, a total of 15,312 votes have been cast locally.

In-person early voting continues through Saturday, November 2 at sites statewide.

Gates County has one early voting site at the Board of Elections Office (25 Medical Center Road, Gates). It is open weekdays from 8 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. as well as from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2.

Photo identification is required to vote.

For those waiting until Election Day on Nov. 5, all traditional voting precincts will be open in Gates County from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.

A number of races will be on the ballot this year. Many local races include seats for Board of Commissioner, Register of Deeds, and Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor.

Candidates in local races in Gates County include the following:

Board of Commissioners – Hobbsville District: Linda Hofler (Democrat), Nathan Berryman (Republican)

Board of Commissioners – Sunbury District: Dave Forsythe (Republican), Althea Riddick (Democrat)

Register of Deeds: Mary Cathy Horton (Democrat)

Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor: E. Boykin Hudgins, Jr.

There are several district, state, and federal races on this year’s ballot as well.

Those races include President/Vice President, US House (District 1), NC Governor, NC Lieutenant Governor, NC Attorney General, NC Auditor, NC Agriculture Commissioner, NC Insurance Commissioner, NC Labor Commissioner, NC Secretary of State, NC Superintendent of Public Instruction, NC Treasurer, NC Supreme Court Associate Justice (Seat 6), NC Court of Appeals Judge (Seat 12, Seat 14, Seat 15), NC Senate (District 1), NC House District 5 (Hertford, Gates, Camden, and Pasquotank counties); and several NC District Court Judge seats.