A Decade of Voter Registration Changes in North Carolina | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Dr. Andy Jackson.

    Boards of elections in all 100 North Carolina counties will soon begin their biennial list maintenance. They will collectively remove several hundred thousand inactive registrations from the voter rolls.

    Before that happens, there's an opportunity to take stock of the changing voter registration data in our state. We will look at changes from November 28, 2012, to November 26, 2022.

    Total registrations in North Carolina grew from 6,665,569 to 7,427,974 over the past decade, but that growth varied widely across the state. A handful of counties have grown a lot, while most counties have had limited growth, and others have seen their number of voter registrations decline.

    There has similarly been a wide variation in party registration changes. Democratic registrations in North Carolina have declined by 372,428 over the past decade. On the other hand, Republican registrations have risen by a modest 174,172 over the same period. The change for unaffiliated registrations has changed the most, with the number increasing by 929,621 over the past decade.

    See the attached spreadsheet for details on changes by party registration in every North Carolina County. The Green and Libertarian parties are not included.

    2012-to-2022-voter-registration-changes-by-county-2

    You can find statewide and county voter registration data and see how that data has changed over any period you choose at Locke's Voter Registration Changes page.