Republicans have grabbed an early advantage in absentee voting in North Carolina, which usually is a Democratic strength, a senior GOP official said Wednesday.
“We are growing our lead in absentee ballots returned” in the state, Chris Carr, political director of the Republican National Committee, said in a memo.
Carr said Republicans lead by 40.5 percent to 33.5 percent in absentee ballots returned to date, and that Democrats have cast 20,000 fewer ballots in the first five days of early voting than they did at the same stage in 2012.
However, the Associated Press reported Wednesday that Democrats have moved ahead of Republicans in overall early voting in the state. Republicans had held a modest lead based on mail-in ballots returned, the wire service reported, but the margin was much narrower than in 2012, when Republican Mitt Romney narrowly defeated President Barack Obama in the state.
Republicans have revamped their strategy for turning out the vote since 2013, increasing to 7,000 the number of paid staff and trained organizers they’ve put in the field. Carr wrote that they have marshaled enough manpower to knock on the doors of more than 12 million voters nationwide, more than the 11.5 million home visits tabulated in 2012 with two weeks left in this year’s campaign.
“Democrats have historically led in early voting, but we make up the difference with Election Day balloting,” he said. “In the 2012 presidential election, for example, we were down approximately 450,000 votes in early voting in North Carolina but still came back to win the state.”
Under the new strategy, “we have had a renewed focus on competing with Democrats right from the start,” a strategy that “is poised to pay dividends up and down the ballot on election day,” Carr said.
Greg Gordon: 202-383-6152, @greggordon2