Absentee and Provisional Data

The statewide and county absentee files are available/updated in three stages:

Stage 1: The absentee file becomes available on our website on the first day that absentee-by-mail ballots are sent to voters. After absentee-by-mail ballots start going out to voters, absentee files are refreshed daily and include data for returned/processed ballots from the day before. Detailed absentee-by-mail ballot information is not made publicly available until ballots are returned or polls open on Election Day. 

Stage 2: Between the start of one-stop early voting and Election Day, data for ballots cast in person via one-stop early voting are added to the absentee files the day after being cast.

Stage 3: On and after Election Day, data for all requested and cast absentee-by-mail and one-stop ballots are included in the file. This includes detailed data for absentee-by-mail ballots that have not been returned.

In 2019, the General Assembly, in Session Law 2019-239, amended subsection (c) of N.C.G.S. § 163-228 to make the absentee request register confidential and not a public record until Election Day. As a result, detailed absentee-by-mail ballot information is no longer reported until the ballot is returned or until polls open on Election Day.

Beginning with the 2020 general election, you may view absentee ballot request counts using the Absentee Request Demographic Stats files.

To explore charts and maps from the 2020 general election, visit our https://www.ncsbe.gov/results-data/voter-turnout/2020-general-election-turnout page.

For the purposes of matching voters:

• When joining files that were created at different points in time, we recommend joining the files via “ncid”; for example, when joining an absentee file with a voter history file or a voter registration file, we recommend matching on “ncid”.
• When joining files that were created around the same point in time, we recommend joining the files via voter registration number and county; for example, when joining an absentee file with a voter registration snapshot file, we recommend matching on voter registration number ("voter_reg_num") and county.

In North Carolina, when you vote early at a one-stop site, you are voting an absentee ballot. By law in North Carolina, early voting is considered “absentee in person,” as you voted “absent” of Election Day. Several weeks after the election, your county board of elections will assign this vote to your “Voter History.”

Both provisional and absentee-by-mail ballots are processed and fed into a tabulator during board meetings held by county boards of elections. Note: Also included in the data are absentee ballots that are cast in person during the early voting period. In North Carolina, one-stop early voting is considered absentee voting.