Midterm Election Looking Almost Presidential As Democrats Go To The Polls

There may be good news for Democrats in this year's election. Early numbers show they're coming out to vote in big numbers in North Carolina.

Generally speaking mid-terms elections are good for Republicans. That's because they show up in higher percentages than Democrats or independent voters.

This year could be different. Michael Bitzer is a professor of political science at Catawba College. He's been looking at absentee and early ballots cast so far in this year's election.

“What we're seeing right now in terms of the early vote is that Democrats are performing just as well percentage-wise as they would during a presidential election,” he says.

Democrats aren't the only ones energized by this election. Republicans are also turning out in their historically strong numbers. So are unaffiliated voters, who often sit out the mid-terms.

So what's the driving force here? Bitzer says for Democrats it may be a backlash against sweeping new voting laws that they say target their base.

“I think they've taken that into account and are showing up in numbers to kind of say to Republicans ‘Look, you can't change the rules of the game on us, we will show up,'” he says. “And I think Republicans are angry at what's going on in Washington. So I think both sides are sufficiently angry.”

As of October 18, there were 2.8 million registered Democrats in North Carolina, 2 million Republicans and 1.8 million unaffiliated voters, according to the state Board of Elections.