Early voting for 2016 U.S. election formally kicks off

Early voting for the 2016 U.S. presidential election kicked off on Friday in North Carolina, ushering in a two-month period of advance voting before the final results will be tallied on Election Day on Nov. 8.

From Friday on, North Carolina residents could submit absentee ballots by mail and in-person early voting would begin late October.

Thirty-seven U.S. states plus the District of Columbia allow voters to cast a ballot ahead of Election Day without having to offer an excuse to do so.

In recent election cycles, early voting, including mail-in ballots and in-person early voting, had become increasingly popular among various kinds of voters, with the share of voters who cast advance ballots increasing from 16 percent in 2000 to 35 percent in 2012.

It is estimated that about 40 percent of voters could choose early voting this year.

Early voting is especially popular among the African-American community. According to local exit polls in the 2012 presidential election, 74 percent of black voters in North Carolina chose to cast ballots before Election Day, compared to 63 percent of white voters who cast advance ballots.

While the preference of early voters would not be known until Election Day, certain U.S. states released limited information in past elections about the number of absentee ballots and in-person early ballots as well as the number of early votes broken out by political parties, offering a glimpse into how successfully each campaign has been working to inspire their supporters to vote. Enditem