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Even before the final votes were counted on Tuesday, Nov. 5, it had already been “a historic election” regarding the turnout during early voting in Forsyth County.

For most voters in the 2024 election, there wasn’t any middle ground when it came down to the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

Most experts and those who participated in the process expected the election to go down to the wire, but Trump prevailed in battleground states, such as North Carolina, Georgia and then Pennsylvania, on the way to victory.

Trump, who upended Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election but lost to Joe Biden in a hotly contested battle in 2020, ended up taking 51 percent of the vote in the state in 2024 compared to 47.7 percent for Harris, who replaced Biden after he withdrew from the race on the Democratic side in the summer. In the county, Harris received 112,038 votes (55.6 percent) to 86,353 votes (42.9 percent) for Trump.

Tim Tsujii, who is the director of the Forsyth County Board of Elections, said that it was a record turnout in early voting with over 155,000 casting ballots and more than 10,000 going the route of absentee by-mail voting. There were a little more than 30,000 that went to the polls on election day.

“It speaks to the convenience of early voting, with multiple locations for voters and multiple days and times that are available for voters,” Tsujji said, “versus where if you wait until election day you have to go vote at your designated precinct, and you only have this 13-hour window to be able to cast your ballot. And you never know about whether or not other things might affect that day.”

Tsujii added that there were more than 127,000 early voters in 2020 and more than 105,000 early voters in 2016.

“You’re seeing a gradual increase every four years,” he said. “People are getting used to the concept of early voting.”

A second early voting site was added this year in Kernersville for a total of 18 in the county, but Tsujii said that efforts to provide an additional site in Clemmons were unsuccessful.

“Historically, the Clemmons Branch Library always has a large turnout,” he said. “In fact, they had the most voters at their site in the county in early voting in this election. Certainly, we’ll keep an eye out on adding another site there going forward.”

Clemmons had 16,610 voters turn out for early voting while the Lewisville Branch Library was second in the county with 14,266 voters.

Tsujii said there are now approximately 277,000 registered voters, including 99,424 Democrats and 73,323 Republicans, in Forsyth County and that 73.19 percent of voters participated in this year’s election with 202,503 ballots cast.

Actually, a higher number of ballots were recorded in the 2020 election on a percentage basis (74.35 percent) with 202,149 voting out of 272,000 registered voters.

Although there were no municipal elections in Clemmons this year (the next one is in 2025), there was a Republican sweep in the Forsyth County commissioners race with Richard Linville, Gloria Whisenhunt and Gray Wilson claiming the three seats up for grabs ahead of Democrats Curtis Fentress, Valerie Brockenbrough and Marsie West.

In the race for governor, Democrat Josh Stein won easily over Republican Mark Robinson, and Democrat Rachel Hunt claimed a narrow victory over Republican Hal Weatherman.

Republican Jeff Zenger of Lewisville prevailed over Democrat Amy Taylor North in the State House District 74 race.

In the U.S. House District 6 race, Republican Addison McDowell rolled to victory over Kevin Hayes of the Constitution Party, and Republican Pat Harrigan topped Democrat Ralph Scott in the U.S. House District 6 race.

In other noteworthy state election results, Democrat Elaine Marshall topped Republican Chad Brown for secretary of state, and Democrat Jeff Jackson won over Republican Dan Bishop for attorney general.

 

N.C. STATE ELECTION RESULTS

PRESIDENT

Donald Trump (R), 2,878,071 (51.0%)

Kamala Harris (D), 2,688,665 (47.7%)

 

GOVERNOR

Josh Stein (D), 3,041,149 (54.8%)

Mark Robinson (R), 2,226,767 (40.2%)

 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Rachel Hunt (D), 2,737,528 (49.4%)

Hal Weatherman (R), 2,643,943 (47.8%)

 

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 6

Addison McDowell (R), 231,894 (69.2%)

Kevin Hayes (CST), 103,053 (30.8%)

 

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 10

Pat Harrigan (R), 231,425 (57.7%)

Ralph Scott (D), 152,401 (38.0%)

 

STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 74

Jeff Zenger (R), 26,695 (51.9%)

Amy Taylor North (D), 24,719 (48.1%)

 

SECRETARY OF STATE

Elaine Marshall (D), 2,806,836 (50.9%)

Chad Brown (R), 2,703,069 (49.1%)

 

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Jeff Jackson (D), 2,878,903 (51.3%)

Dan Bishop (R), 2,695,976 (48.7%)

 

FORSYTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (Elect 3)

* Richard Linville (R), 66,836 (18.2%)

* Gloria Whisenhunt (R), 63,836 (17.2%)

* Gray Wilson (R), 62,483 (17.0%)

Curtis Fentress (D), 59,883 (16.3%)

Valerie Brockenbrough (D), 59,165 (16.1%)

Marsie West (D), 56,385 (15.3%)