North Carolina, 2012 Presidential Election | featured news

Lines swelled Friday outside early voting sites around the Triangle as time to cast a ballot before next Tuesday's election dwindled. As of Friday afternoon, almost 2.39 million votes had been cast statewide, with 93 percent of those as in-person ballots at early voting sites. The total represents more than a third of registered voters in North Carolina and is approaching the 2.64 million early votes cast in 2008.

Unemployment rates fell or held steady last month in nine key swing states at the center of this year's presidential election. Rates dropped in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina. They were unchanged in New Hampshire and Virginia.

Mitt Romney is showing confidence about his standing in North Carolina and shifting campaign staff to other battleground states. "With the increasingly widening polls in North Carolina, we will continue to allocate resources, including key senior staff, to other states," Romney spokesman Michael Levoff told The News & Observer in Raleigh.

President Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention has been moved indoors, aides said, because of concerns over threatening storms in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.

Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., rallied Democrats on Tuesday night to kick off the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C. -- urging delegates and others in the crowd to back the party platform, which he said will move America forward with investment in education, fair taxation and other policy goals.

"We've had the old Romney-Ryan plan before - the top-down, give wealthier folks more tax breaks and somehow that's going to trickle down - it didn't work, it led to this economic disaster that the president inherited. We tried that, it failed, the Obama plan is much better for North Carolina," Dem. Rep. Jennifer Weiss, of Wake County, said.

During a recent weekend in North Carolina, Tim Pawlenty did what he has been doing over the past year for Mitt Romney: He drove himself non-stop. In one town, he discussed the economy and jobs with a group of parents at an ice rink. Before the event ended, the former high school junior varsity hockey player had taken to the ice to give children a few skating tips. Soon, he was off again. He helped to open a Republican office in Raleigh, turning fiery, using the occasion to hammer President Obama and show off his combative skills: “I’m tired of hearing his teleprompter speeches and no results. . . . Those words, they don’t put gas in our cars, do they?”

Democratic President Barack Obama holds a narrow lead over Republican Mitt Romney in North Carolina, according to a new poll. Obama has a 49-46 percent lead over Romney, according to a survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm based in Raleigh. The lead is within the margin of error.

In a campaign fast growing nasty, the Republican National Committee is trying a gentler approach... Several Republicans who weren't involved in making the ad say a softer approach may be essential to the effort to defeat Obama in November, given polls showing him with strong personal favorability ratings. The ad is airing in Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa.

President Obama would like to carry North Carolina again, but he's having trouble with a couple of House Democrats in the Tar Heel State. U.S. Reps. Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre -- both of whom represent rural districts with more Republican voters after redistricting -- have declined to endorse Obama for re-election.