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More than 11,000 Stanly County voters cast ballots ahead of Election Day as the county’s early voting period, which began Oct. 20, concluded Saturday afternoon, according to Stanly County Board of Election data.

As reported Monday afternoon, 10,973 Stanly residents voted in person (7,127 voted at Stanly County Commons and 3,846 people voted at Locust Town Center) and 406 by-mail ballots were approved by the county board — a total of 11,379 votes. That is about 26 percent of the county’s 43,756 registered voters.

Of the total, 54% were Republicans (6,199 votes), 27% were unaffiliated (3,057) and 19% were Democrats (2,107).

“We did have a great turnout for one-stop early voting,” Stanly County Elections Director Kimberly Blackwelder said, noting about 1,700 more people came out during early voting this year than four years ago. “That fits our pattern of increasing the turnout every like election cycle.”

Blackwelder added that she is hoping that between 46 to 50 percent of all registered voters turn out to vote during the election season.

“Hopefully the precincts will be busy,” she added.

White people, which make up about 84% of the county population, according to U.S. Census data, have accounted for about 86% of the early vote, while Black people, which comprise 12% of the population, have accounted for about 7% of the vote.

Almost 2.2 million North Carolinians have already voted, up from the 2 million that cast ballots during the 2018 midterms. Roughly 29 percent of the state’s 7.4 million registered voters have already voted.

Polling places are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m on Election Day. To find the correct polling place, people can visit https://vt.ncsbe.gov/PPLkup/.