Voter Engagement Was High In NC. Here’s What Turnout Tells Us.

WUNC | By Anita Rao,

Published November 5, 2020 at 12:45 PM EST

Credit NCSBE

Over 5 million North Carolinians cast ballots in this year’s election, many of them opting for mail-in and early onsite voting. While there is still a lot we do not know about voter demographics, we do know that the pandemic did not deter voter engagement.

Host Anita Rao talks to WUNC data reporter Jason DeBruyn about absentee and provisional ballots and what they could mean for close local races.

Republican voting resulted in big gains for the party on the legislative level, but there are at least three races that are still undecided: Attorney General and two state Supreme Court seats. With 117,000 absentee ballots still pending, the results could be determined by very small margins in the days to come. Host Anita Rao talks to WUNC data reporter Jason DeBruyn about voter engagement and what the numbers tell us.

Anita Rao

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.

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Stacia Brown

Stacia Brown comes to WUNC from Washington, DC, where she was a producer for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A. She’s the creator and host of two podcasts, The Rise of Charm City and Hope Chest. Her audio projects have been featured on Scene on Radio, a podcast of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; BBC 4’s Short Cuts; and American Public Radio’s Terrible, Thanks for Asking.

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