QUESTION ASKED: Could absentee ballots spell trouble for Donald Trump in North Carolina?

Traditionally, Republicans have had a big advantage in absentee voting. Older, rural, and military voters are often more conservative and have favored this method over their Democratic counterparts, who historically enjoy a larger percentage of the early in-person vote.

So far this cycle, registered Republicans continue to hold an overall advantage in requested ballots but are well behind where they were four years ago at this time. On top of that, registered Democrats and independents have increased their participation in the absentee process compared to 2012, both in requested and returned ballots.

McCain lost North Carolina in the second-closest state of 2008, while Romney won there in 2012 by 92,004 votes out of about 4.4 million votes cast.