Over half of the voters in Rowan County made their voices heard during the early voting period, setting a record for turnout at the polling locations but falling short of the overall high, which includes early and mail-in ballots.

In Rowan County, 54,318 people voted early, or approximately 54 percent of the over 100,000 registered voters. That number breaks the county record for votes cast during the early voting period, with the previous high being 47,620 in 2020. Early turnout has exploded during the past two presidential election cycles, with an increase of almost 20,000 from the 2016 turnout of 38,233, which also set the record at the time.

If absentee ballots are included in the count, the turnout increases to 56,662, which shows a decrease in overall early votes recorded from the 2020 election, which had 57,226 early and mail-in ballots cast.

Rowan County was in line with the rest of the state in regards to percentage turnout among registered voters, with North Carolina seeing a 56.72-percent turnout and the county seeing a 56.16-percent turnout.

The N.C. State Board of Elections notes a couple caveats with the decrease in mail-in voting, stating that the COVID pandemic led to a significant increase in 2020 and the state Supreme Court required absentee ballots to be reprinted and sent out later following the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from the ballot as a presidential candidate. Absentee ballots saw a 500-percent increase between the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Sharon Main, director of the Rowan County Board of Elections, said that the county does not have a way to track the registered party of early voters. However, the state tracks the parties of voters statewide, which showed that North Carolina Republicans had both a higher turnout of voters than Democrats and unaffiliated voters as well as a higher proportional turnout of the party’s registered voters. That statistic represents the first time in recent history that Republicans had a greater turnout than Democrats during the early voting period.

In total, 1,478,761 or 63.18 percent of Republicans voted early, 1,437,304 or 58.68 percent of Democrats voted early and 1,492,799 or 50.45 percent of unaffiliated voters turned out early.

Election Day is today, with the polls open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voters who are in line at their registered polling location at 7:30 p.m. will be allowed to vote after the “closing time.” A list of the precincts as well as their respective polling places can be found on the Board of Elections’ website at rowancountync.gov/elections, along with a search tool for voters who are unsure of what precinct they reside in.

Overall turnout, including Election Day, early and absentee voting, also set a record in 2020 with approximately 73,000 ballots cast, which represented a 75.59 percent turnout.