Early Voting Officially Underway For March 3rd Primary
Early in-person voting for the 2026 primary election officially began today in all 100 counties and ends at 3:00 pm on February 28. March 3 is the Election Day for the primary.
Across North Carolina there are 319 early voting sites open for primary voters who wish to cast. Early voting is a popular voting style in North Carolina. In 2022, 59% of primary voters cast a ballot on election day, 39% voted early, and only 2% voted by mail.
Here are some tools for voter information from the North Carolina State Board of Elections:
Click here to find your early voting site.
Click here to utilize the voter tool to find your sample ballot.
Click here for the guide to photo IDs that work, and where to get a free voter ID.
Since control of the State Board of Elections was transferred to the State Auditor, his office highlighted some ways that early voting has been improved.
There is a 6% increase in early voting sites in North Carolina 2026 compared to 2021. Seventeen counties increased the number of early voting sites from 2022 to 2026, while seven reduced the number of sites.
The number of early voting hours increased from 45,512 to 48,048 hours for the March 2026 primary. This represents a 6% increase from the total early voting hours across North Carolina compared to 2022 May primary.
Weekend Early Voting Hours: The total number of early voting hours increased from 4,610 to 4,679. This represents a 1.5% increase in total weekend early voting hours across North Carolina compared to May 2022.
