RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Voters in tightly contested North Carolina have seen the presidential candidates and their surrogates a lot this summer.
What helps make the state such a political hot spot is that voting begins before anywhere else.
Election officials begin mailing ballots Sept. 9 to any registered voter in North Carolina who formally requested one. That’s the earliest in the country and 60 days before the Nov. 8 election.
A few other battleground states start mailing absentee ballots two weeks later. An array of states follows with differing forms of early in-person voting in the campaign’s final weeks.
It’s for that reason that North Carolina provides campaigns with an early test. – READ MORE
