Lines snaked around early voting sites throughout the city on Thursday, the first day of early voting. Thus far, North Carolinians are stepping up to polls only a few days after Gov. Mitt Romney has gained a slim lead over President Obama in the state. In 2008, President Obama had already gained 300,000 votes in North Carolina by election day. He won the state by 14,000 votes that year.
This year’s election could be even tighter. In the latest poll, Romney leads Obama 49 to 47 percent in the state. The Romney campaign is feeling so confident that he will win North Carolina, they are pulling staff out of the state. The Obama campaign, on the other hand, is adding more staff in an effort to secure the state.
On Thursday, the first day of early voting, 150,664 N.C. voters went to the polls. That’s 28 percent more than cast ballots on the first day of early voting in 2008, according to the Charlotte Observer. Democrats outnumbered Republican voters on Thursday nearly 2 to 1, but Republican turnout was larger on Thursday than it was on the first day in 2008.
