The Hunt Center took 18,055 early votes, up 31% on its 13,808 in 2022. Wake County topped 334,000. The Nov. 3 results are in our election story.

Early voting at the W.E. Hunt Recreation Center in Holly Springs ended with 18,055 ballots over 17 days, Oct. 15-31. That is up 31% on the 13,808 it took in all of early voting in 2022. The site passed its 2022 total a day early, with 16,857 ballots through Friday, Oct. 30.

Updated Nov. 5: final figures, including Saturday, Oct. 31, when the Hunt Center took 1,198 ballots. In all, 14,278 voters with a Holly Springs home address voted early at any site, and Wake County took 334,088 early ballots, up 52% on 219,169 in 2022. Another 640 Holly Springs voters had a mail ballot accepted. For how the vote went, see our Holly Springs election results. The table and chart below cover the first 16 days, compared with the same days in 2022.

The figures come from our count of the N.C. State Board of Elections early voting file, updated Saturday morning. We counted accepted in-person ballots only. We compared them with the board’s 2022 file over the same first 16 days of that year’s early voting.

The numbers through Friday

First 16 days, 2022 First 16 days, 2026 Change
W.E. Hunt Recreation Center 12,736 16,857 up 32%
Voters with a Holly Springs home address, any site 9,522 13,376 up 40%
All of Wake County 200,320 310,760 up 55%

The Holly Springs address count uses the city on each voter’s registration. That includes some homes outside the town limits with a Holly Springs mailing address. Another 541 voters with a Holly Springs address had had a mail ballot accepted by then.

Countywide, Wake’s 310,760 early ballots through Friday were already well past its 219,169 for all of early voting in 2022. On Oct. 21 the county called its early pace “an unprecedented increase for a midterm election,” in a release after the first six days.

The Hunt Center is the ninth busiest of Wake’s 18 early voting sites. The busiest in the county is the John M. Brown Community Center in Apex, about five miles north, with 26,554 ballots. The Hilltop Needmore Town Park Clubhouse near Fuquay-Varina has taken 16,779.

Bar chart of early votes cast each day at the W.E. Hunt Recreation Center in Holly Springs from Oct. 15 to Oct. 30, 2026: 1,184; 1,263; 696; 539; 1,214; 1,094; 997; 956; 1,174; 646; 539; 1,141; 1,141; 1,206; 1,334; and 1,733 on Friday, Oct. 30, the busiest day. Total 16,857.
Chart by Holly Springs Daily. Source: N.C. State Board of Elections early voting file, updated Oct. 31, 2026.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The last days were the busiest

The county said the final days would be the busiest, and they were. Friday, Oct. 30, brought 1,733 ballots at the Hunt Center, its biggest day of the period. That beat the site’s best day in 2022: 1,490 on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

The weekends were the quietest. The site took 696 and 646 on the two Saturdays and 539 on each Sunday, when it kept shorter hours.

Saturday, Oct. 31, was the last day of early voting. The site was open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and took 1,198 ballots, for a final total of 18,055.

What it means for you

  • Early voting and Election Day are over. The unofficial results are in our election results story.
  • The count is not final until the Wake County Board of Elections canvass on Friday, Nov. 13.
  • For the next election and how to register, see our voting guide.