NC voter stats show a new group is No. 1 in Mecklenburg just before Election Day

Unaffiliated voters this month became the largest group of registered voters in Mecklenburg County, and experts say how they vote in this election could make a big difference statewide.

For the first time, the number of registered unaffiliated voters in the county surpassed the number of registered Republicans and Democrats just over two weeks before election day. The most recent data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, reported on Oct. 26, shows 334,039 registered unaffiliated voters in Mecklenburg County, compared with 331,701 registered Democrats and 162,090 registered Republicans.

“Whether they vote and how they vote may not only mean the difference for local races, but given the size of Mecklenburg County, may also mean the difference for statewide races,” said Chris Cooper, a politics professor at Western Carolina University.

Cooper said the reason for the rise in unaffiliated voters is both structural and cultural. Voters may strategically choose to register unaffiliated in order to choose which primary to vote in, he said. In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can choose to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary race.

“Culturally, politics has gotten so polarized that some people may believe that registering Unaffiliated is a way to avoid alienating half of the population,” Cooper said.

The choice to register unaffiliated could indicate voter apathy, Cooper said, but for many people it’s a way to indicate dissatisfaction with the two-party system. Most unaffiliated voters lean one way or another but there are unaffiliated voters who truly swing between parties when voting.

Michael Bitzer, a politics professor at Catawba College, attributes the rise in unaffiliated voters to Millennials and Gen-Z.

“Gen Z has hit 50% unaffiliated status,” Bitzer said. “They are the children of polarized politics and while they may go away from party labels, this doesn’t mean they aren’t partisan in nature.”

The shift in Mecklenburg’s voter makeup matches with statewide data. In North Carolina, there are 2.95 million registered Unaffiliated voters, compared with 2.44 million registered Democrats and 2.34 million registered Republicans, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

How are Mecklenburg parties responding?

Drew Kromer, the chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party, said the rise in unaffiliated voters doesn’t concern him.

“At the end of the day, your party affiliation can be an indicator of how you may feel, but it’s not dispositive,” Kromer said. “At the Democratic Party ... our job isn’t to just convince people that our candidates are better candidates, it’s actually really to mobilize the voters.”

Mecklenburg Democrats have focused their efforts this year on increasing low voter turnout, something Kromer previously told The Charlotte Observer could have a major impact on statewide races. When it comes to mobilizing unaffiliated voters, Kromer said, the strategy the party uses is to help people see the ways in which political policies could impact their everyday lives.

Lorena Castillo-Ritz, chair of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party, called the rise in unaffiliated voters a rejection of the Democratic Party. Like Mecklenburg Democrats, the party is focused on speaking about specific policies with unaffiliated voters.

“The rise in Unaffiliated registrations shows that North Carolina is seeing historical rejection of the Democrat Party,” Castillo-Ritz wrote in a statement to the Observer. “That is indicative of interest in the Republican Party and we have been talking to voters where they are about the issues they care about.”