RALEIGH, N.C.  – Barack Obama’s effort to register tens of thousands of voters this summer was widely successful.

But the president-elect may not have won North Carolina without the help of a new law that allowed voters to both sign up and cast a ballot during state’s early voting period.

Obama became the first Democrat to win North Carolina in more than three decades. The unofficial margin without the tally of provisional ballot stands at 13,692 votes over Republican nominee John McCain.

Nearly 92,000 new voters registered during the early voting period, which opened after the traditional registration deadline for Election Day voting had passed. Democrats outregistered Republicans at the early voting sites by a margin of more than two-to-one.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Early voting begins Thursday.

In Wake County, there are five one-stop voting sites. Even if you don’t have your voter registration card, you can still vote early.

The Wake County Board of Elections says cards are slow to go out because it’s so busy verifying tens of thousands of voter registrations. Currently the BOE says it’s has a backlog of 20,000 registrations to go through.

Only five of Wake County’s one-stop voting sites open tomorrow. All 15 will be open Oct. 23. You can cast a ballot at any of the early voting sites in your county.

Early voting ends Nov. 1. 

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