Catawba College and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte have launched NCElectionsLive.com, a new public-facing resource that helps North Carolinians explore election results, compare voting patterns across election cycles, and better understand the state's elections through publicly available data.
Developed as a collaborative scholarly and public-service initiative, the nonpartisan website draws its election data directly from publicly available files provided by the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The site is not affiliated with the State Board, county boards of elections, political parties, or campaigns.
“This initiative is designed to enhance the transparency and data-rich dynamics of North Carolina’s elections and its politics,” said Dr. Michael Bitzer, Professor of Politics and History at Catawba College and Director of the College’s Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service.
“North Carolinians can explore the state’s elections through official data, historical comparisons, and detailed analysis of voting patterns, down to the precinct level,” Bitzer said. “Through the work of Drs. Jason Windett, Professor of Data Science in UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science, and Hanif Sajid, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Center, we have developed a resource for North Carolinians, journalists, scholars, and interested parties that helps document and detail the richness of North Carolina’s elections and helps users better understand our state’s politics.”
The project was supported by a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and gifts to Catawba College’s Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service.
The website currently focuses on early ballots in the state’s 2026 election, documenting the comparison to both 2022 and 2024’s early voting period, along with detailed county-level breakdowns for dynamics such as:
- Party registration
- Legislative districts and precincts
- Voters’ past history and their vote method in 2022
- Early voting site locations and information in the 100 N.C. counties
“Once North Carolina gets to Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, the site will pull data after the polls close from the N.C. State Board of Elections and not just provide each contest’s current results, but detailed information such as an ‘expected vote meter,’ an estimate of how much of the total vote has been counted,” Bitzer said.
Following Election Day, the website will provide information on the canvassing and certification of the election results and then update the dynamics of voter methods and history.
Beyond election data, the website provides current North Carolina voter registration information, again by congressional and state legislative districts, most notably by party registration. Future updates will include more demographic details for these regions, along with each of the 100 counties.
“The site serves as a companion resource to the N.C. State Board of Elections,” Bitzer noted. “On election night, the official count is our anchor, and everything we add on top is labeled as an estimate. We will never call races. News organizations make projections; we show our citizens the count, what is potentially left, and the context to read it.”
“Our participation figures describe who has voted, from the public voter record. They say nothing about how anyone voted, because North Carolina publishes nothing about that. We also make available every chart, map, and table on the website that can be downloaded, with its source and timestamp, for public use and transparency,” Bitzer added.
About the Team
Dr. Michael Bitzer is a Professor of Politics and History and Director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College.
Dr. Hanif Sajid is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in computation social science and public policy with the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College, in collaboration with the School of Data Science at UNC Charlotte. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from UNC Charlotte as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Jason Windett is a Professor of Data Science at the UNC Charlotte, where he directs the School of Data Science's Ph.D. program and holds joint appointments in Public Policy and in Political Science and Public Administration. He previously served as the Data Science School's Director of Research.
About Catawba College
Founded in 1851, Catawba College is a four-year, private liberal arts college located on a 276-acre campus, including a 189-acre ecological preserve, in Salisbury, N.C. Ranked as one of the best colleges in the South, Catawba is a learning community of nearly 1,400 students from 35 states and 45 nations, providing students with opportunities shaped by the Catawba Ideal: Scholarship with Character and Culture for Service. Additional information is available at catawba.edu.
