North Carolina had already surpassed its early-voting record set in 2020, but the State Board of Elections announced that more than 4.2 million voters cast ballots at early in-person voting sites, with turnout in western counties hit by Hurricane Helene outpacing the rest of the state, Associated Press reports.

Early in-person voting, which ended Saturday, has become increasingly popular in the presidential battleground state over several election cycles. People can simultaneously register to vote and cast ballots at early voting sites.

Four years ago, a record 3.63 million people voted at hundreds of sites in all 100 counties during the early-voting period. This year, the state exceeded that total by Thursday, days before the period ended, the board said.

Including absentee voting, 4,465,548 voters — or 57 per cent of the state’s 7.8 million registered voters — cast ballots in the general election as of Sunday morning, officials said, noting that turnout may be slightly higher because of a lag between when ballots are cast and when data is uploaded.