There are 149,596 more Republicans and 95,524 fewer Democrats on the North Carolina voting rolls in 2020 when compared to 2016.
But there is one other big change among registered voters: there are now 415,210 more who are unaffiliated.
The North Carolina Republican Party credits the surge in their registered voters to registration events and outreach since 2017.
But Western Carolina University political science professor Christopher Cooper says the second largest block of North Carolina registered voters is unaffiliated.
“From the ages of 17, when you can preregister to vote, through the age of 45 — unaffiliated is the largest group,” Cooper says. “It’s only when you get past the age of 45 that the two major parties really re-exert their dominance.
Cooper says Democrats in the state tend to be older, and younger voters are registering as unaffiliated.
Alexandra Watts joined WFAE as a Report for America Corps Member in 2020 in the unique partnership with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library using radio and Wikipedia to fill news deserts.
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