A tiny electorate so far
As of the close of early voting, Mecklenburg County logged 13,871 ballots—13,677 in-person and 194 absentee-by-mail. That’s less than 2 percent of the county’s 782,000 registered voters. Election Day has yet to arrive, but the picture is already clear: only a sliver of Charlotte’s electorate has bothered to weigh in.
The pattern: a late surge, but too small
The first week was a crawl: 157, 126, 105, 92, 89, 120, 170 total ballots per day. It wasn’t until the final week that numbers picked up: 2,498 (Sept. 2), 2,120 (Sept. 3), 2,201 (Sept. 4), 2,984 (Sept. 5), and 3,015 (Sept. 6). Nearly three-quarters of the total arrived in those last five days.
The busiest sites were University City Library (2,965), SouthPark (1,812), Allegra Westbrooks (1,658), Hal Marshall Annex (1,622), and Independence Library (1,554). Trailing sites, like Steele Creek Masonic Lodge (797) and Marion Diehl Rec Center (864), struggled to break four figures.
What it means heading into Tuesday
Bradley Tusk, the strategist who has made a second career out of diagnosing democracy’s incentive problems, says it flatly: “A primary is the election; November is a parade”. The point isn’t that Mecklenburg’s primaries are over—they’re not. It’s that with turnout this low, the decisive electorate is always smaller than people assume. Campaigns know it, and so they calibrate to mobilize narrow, reliable blocs.
The worry is structural. In 2024, Mecklenburg ranked 97th out of 100 North Carolina counties for primary turnout (18.7%). Unless something changes on Tuesday, the county could once again finish near the bottom of the state table. Compare that to Graham County, which posted 37.4% turnout last cycle.
Who is missing
The demographic gap is especially striking. Statewide, voters aged 18–25 turned out at 7.7% in the 2024 primaries. Mecklenburg has tens of thousands of students and young professionals, but early-vote data suggests they remain on the sidelines. Meanwhile, retirees and entrenched activists—those who plan their calendars around early voting—make up a disproportionate share of the electorate.
Harvard’s Lawrence Lessig would call this a problem of “architecture.” The rules, the calendar, and the level of attention dictate who shows up. With primaries set at times and formats that depress broad turnout, the architecture ensures that a minority of voices sets the table for everyone else.
What comes next
Tuesday still matters. Most votes in Mecklenburg are cast on Election Day, and the county Board of Elections is preparing for heavier traffic. But the early-vote numbers are a reminder: if turnout hovers around 15–20 percent as it has in recent cycles, then only one in five voters will have chosen the finalists who appear in November.
That’s the democracy deficit Charlotte keeps living with. The next 48 hours will decide if 2025 is any different.
About the Author
I’m Peter Cellino, Publisher of The Charlotte Mercury and founder of Mercury Local, our hyper-local startup covering Charlotte neighborhood by neighborhood. Fueled by coffee and civic spreadsheets, I write to make sense of the numbers shaping this city. Reach me on Bluesky @petercellino.com, and dive deeper on the Mercury Local blog.
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This article, “Charlotte’s Early Vote: Less Than 2 Percent Turnout Before Election Day,” by Peter Cellino is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.
“Charlotte’s Early Vote: Less Than 2 Percent Turnout Before Election Day”
by Peter Cellino, Mercury Local (CC BY-ND 4.0)