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NC Voters Request Absentee Ballots In Unprecedented Numbers

Absentee ballot requests surge as voters choose to cast their votes from a distance during the coronavirus pandemic.
Absentee ballot requests surge as voters choose to cast their votes from a distance during the coronavirus pandemic.
Absentee ballot requests surge as voters choose to cast their votes from a distance during the coronavirus pandemic.
Credit Flickr / Nadya Peek
Absentee ballot requests surge as voters choose to cast their votes from a distance during the coronavirus pandemic.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many North Carolina voters are choosing to cast their ballot via mail. Over 90,000 North Carolinians have requested a mail-in absentee ballot so far, nearly five times as many requests as this time in 2016. 

Host Anita Rao talks with reporter Jordan Wilkie about mail-in absentee ballots.

Host Anita Rao talks with reporter Jordan Wilkie about how county boards of election in the state are preparing for the surge of mailed ballots. Wilkie is a Report for America corps member with Carolina Public Press. 

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Josie Taris left her home in Fayetteville in 2014 to study journalism at Northwestern University. There, she took a class called Journalism of Empathy and found her passion in audio storytelling. She hopes every story she produces challenges the audience's preconceptions of the world. After spending the summer of 2018 working in communications for a Chicago nonprofit, she decided to come home to work for the station she grew up listening to. When she's not working, Josie is likely rooting for the Chicago Cubs or petting every dog she passes on the street.