ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Early in-person voting opened strong across Asheville and Buncombe County on Thursday, with 7,049 people checking in at the county’s 13 sites — roughly 3.2 percent of the registered rolls and a jump of more than half from the first day of the 2022 midterm cycle.
The South Buncombe library branch topped the list at 877 check-ins, edging Weaverville Community Center by four. East Asheville’s library followed at 767, Enka/Candler at 734, North Asheville at 711 and West Asheville at 709. Upper Hominy Fire and Rescue saw the fewest voters, with 81.
Party registration on the first day skewed Democratic: 3,561 Democrats, about 2,800 unaffiliated voters and roughly 680 Republicans, plus a handful of Libertarian and Green Party ballots. Those counts reflect how people are registered, not which candidates they chose.
Staff at the busy Skyland-area library said lines moved along and that voters talked about wanting to finish their ballots while they could. The early window stretches to the end of October, and sites shut down at mid-afternoon on the final Saturday.
Any Buncombe voter can use any of the 13 locations, and people who missed the regular registration cutoff may still register and vote during the early period. Same-day registrations can push the published daily totals higher once they are processed.
The county’s busiest opening-day mark remains 2020, when more than 11,000 people turned out early. With the Nov. 3 election approaching, the opening numbers point to steady interest from Asheville neighborhoods and surrounding towns.
Section: More Asheville NC politics news
Filed under: Asheville NC Politics News
