Encouraged to do so repeatedly, the Grand Old Party accounted for 34.09% of more than 778,000 ballots cast after the first two days of early in-person voting. The figure includes returned absentee by mail ballots.

Democrats represent 35.05% and unaffiliated voters 30.4%. For context, voter registration of more than 7.7 million is 37.87% unaffiliated, 31.29% Democrats and 29.81% Republican. And, the state is stereotypical in having more Democrats vote early than Republicans in what could be called the modern era of the last 17 years.

The early in-person method – third Thursday before through Saturday prior to Election Day – arrived in 2001, and in 2007 same-day registration became part of the norm. Democrats had a legislative trifecta at the time, and in 2010 Republicans gained majorities in both chambers for the first time in 140 years, since Reconstruction from the Civil War.

The first time absentee by mail ballots were allowed was 1977, though only for people with disabilities or those who would be out of state on Election Day. An application process was necessary. In 1999, eligibility changed to any voter, and one-stop locations were introduced.

The trend is not by accident. As The Center Square reported in June, the nonprofit American Majority Action has deployed significant ground games in battlegrounds North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin, as well as Minnesota and Virginia.

And, as the Team Trump Bus Tour crossed the state in the past week, a clear message was delivered from many. The guests were from across the country, not limited to though including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, former interim U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker of Iowa, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, and former assistant to the president and Trade & Manufacturing Director Peter Navarro.

“Look, I’d like it if we all vote in November,” U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, Republican candidate for attorney general, told the audience in Goldsboro late Friday afternoon. “But this is the system we are in. We need you to vote early and take your friends.”

Added Navarro, “Each of you can get 1,000 people to the poll. You make sure 10 people go. And then make sure each of them gets 10.”

He added with a smile, “We call that multi-level marketing.”

State Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, spoke on behalf of congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout and assured his friends the election was the most important of his lifetime. And he pointed out how his loss by 24,613 of more than 4.5 million cast for attorney general in 2016 showed the value of each vote. Four years later, as Bishop pointed out, it was déjà vu – Jim O’Neill losing by 13,622 of more than 5.4 million cast.

Democrat Josh Stein, the gubernatorial candidate this year, prevailed each time.

“This is the most consequential election of my lifetime,” Bishop said earlier in Greenville. “North Carolina is a must-win state for President Trump. He will win it. I can feel it, the polls are starting to move. The trend and the momentum is with him.”

And with Republicans voting early.