Well, howdy there internet people? It's Bell again. So today we're going to talk about

North Carolina voting records and what might be a trend. So early voting has

started in North Carolina and the first day was a record-breaking

turnout. There were concerns that the effects of Hurricane Helene might depress voter

turnout but that does not seem to be the case. In the 25

counties hit by Helene, it's being reported that 76 of the 80 voting locations were open. The first day

353,166 people voted. That's a record breaking 20's numbers by a few thousand votes.

That matches the trend from Georgia, another swing state where early voting has started that also had record-breaking days.

So what does that mean?

There are two possible reads on this.

One is that your typical likely voters are voting early and taking advantage of the convenience.

The other is that we're seeing more voters engaged with this election.

In other words, the unlikely voters are already starting to be

visible. The long-time traditional wisdom is that when more people show up, the Democratic Party does better.

There's not actually a ton of cause and effect data to show that recently.

But the idea is so ingrained that it's believed to be the basis for Republican

policies that seem to be aimed at making it harder to vote.

So is there anything in North Carolina's results that can give us a clue?

It looks like Wake County North Carolina saw the highest number of early votes. There were 30,843. This is a county that voted for

Biden overwhelmingly in 2020. It wasn't even close.

Biden got about 62% of the votes and Trump got around 35%.

At the same time, it's important to remember that Wake County is one of the most populous

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