10,000 North Carolinians Vote Absentee In First Week

State data shows nearly 10,000 North Carolinians had their mail-in ballots accepted in the first week of voting. The data released Friday shows North Carolina was the first state in the country to send absentee ballots to voters who requested them.  The accepted ballots represent about 1% of the number requested and an even smaller fraction of the state’s 7.1 million registered voters. Limited conclusions can be drawn so far, but the data still offers insight on how people are casting ballots and what challenges may lie ahead. Of the ballots returned so far, 6,155 are from Democrats, compared to 1,248 from Republicans and nearly 3,000 from unaffiliated voters.