(The Center Square) – More than 71% of North Carolina voter registrations added in the past week chose to be unaffiliated rather than Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian or Green Party.
The State Board of Elections’ update on Saturday showed 4,015 additions over the previous week, sending total registered to 7,619,835. Republicans snagged 6.9% (278) and Democrats 6% (242).
Little change came for the percentage shares. The unaffiliated bloc (38.7%, or 2,952,261) is well ahead of Democrats (30.3%, or 2,310,019) and Republicans (30.3%, or 2,306,897). The other eligible parties are Libertarians (6.1%, or 46,385) and Green Party (0.06%, or 4,273).
Democrats, forever the leading choice of registrations, are now just 3,122 registrations ahead of Republicans. That difference in voter share is 0.040972%. Democrats did, for the second consecutive week, have positive gain rather than loss.
Candidate filing for the 2026 midterms was set to begin at noon on Monday.
Total voter registrations eclipsed 7.8 million on Election Day 2024; routine maintenance throughout the year is a key contributing factor to the volume changes. This fall was an off-year election cycle, when 91 of 100 counties had municipal races.
A mere 16 years ago Democrats were in eight of 10 seats for the Council of State and commanded 30-20 and 68-52 majorities in the General Assembly. Today those figures are 5-5 in the executive offices, and Republicans have held advantages of 30-20 in the Senate and 71-49 in the House of Representatives this session.
A year ago on the fourth Saturday after Election Day in November, the state was counting more than 7.8 million voters registered. The split was 38.7% unaffiliated (2.9 million), 32.1% Democrats (2.4 million) and 30.8% Republicans (2.3 million).
North Carolina is considered a legitimate battleground state on the national level, purple in hue rather than blue for Democrats or red for Republicans. Each has been around more than 150 years, the Grand Old Party (1867) more than a half century behind its rival (1828).
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From the every two years elections of 1930 to 1982, Democrats were below 43 of the 50 state Senate seats just twice (won 38 in 1969, won 35 in 1973) and didn’t have fewer than 30 until only getting 26 in the 1994 cycle. From 1930 to 1982 in the House, Democrats had fewer than 102 of the 120 just six times with 85 won in 1974 the worst.
Three decades ago at Election Day 1992, North Carolinians elected Democrats to all 10 Council of State positions and majorities of 39-11 in the state Senate and 78-42 in the House.