As elsewhere across the country, in North Carolina unaffiliated voters (sometimes called ‘independents’) are by far the fastest growing segment of the electorate. Here in the Tar Heel State they’ve already relegated the Republican Party to ‘third-party’ status, and will soon overtake Democrats, as well.
Unaffiliated voters are, traditionally, the bane of political pundits. They don’t wear their partisan proclivities on their sleeves, so it’s hard to predict how they’ll vote in an election. And their numbers are becoming so large that they will pretty much determine the outcome of any election for which they turn out in significant numbers.
At NCGoVote.org we deeply analyze North Carolina voter registration data every week, looking for trends. And lately, one of the more interesting trends we’ve been following answers the question “what happens to unaffiliated voters when they decide to affiliate with a party?”
Here’s the answer: