North Carolina intentionally attempted to make early voting tougher for African Americans, according to a federal court ruling in August, which may have worked according to black turnout data.
According to NBC News, black turnout fell 66,000 votes from 2012, about 8.7 percent. Political science professor Michael McDonald of the University of Florida tweeted about these numbers on Sunday:
If African-American turnout doesn't improve on Election Day, it could cost Hillary Clinton a crucial battleground state, though her campaign expressed confidence in their ability to get-out-the-vote. Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook was asked on CBS News about any decline in black turnout.
"We're just not seeing that," he said. "Actually, we're really proud that African Americans are supporting Secretary Clinton at the same rate as President Obama. We're seeing in Florida, in particular, African-American turnout is up from 2012."
In September, the executive director of the state GOP wrote to county election boards pushing for more restrictive early voting practices in order to benefit the party.
"Our Republican Board members should feel empowered to make legal changes to early voting plans, that are supported by Republicans," Woodhouse wrote, according to NBC. "Republicans can and should make party line changes to early voting."
According to a recent report from the civil rights group The Leadership Conference Education Fund, there are 27 fewer polling places in the Tar Heel State than in 2012. In Guilford County, for example, there were 16 early voting sites in the first-week of early voting in the 2012 election. This year there was one.
"During the first week, we were just getting tons of tons of calls to the hotline about long lines," Allison Riggs, voting rights lawyer for the Southern Coalition for Justice, told NBC. She also said she thinks Trump supporters were working to intimidate black voters.
"We had a bunch of people from Henderson County saying folks are out there driving around African-American neighborhoods yelling at people," she said. "People didn't feel safe going out."