Voters in North Carolina head to the polls on Election Day to cast their votes in a critical presidential swing state that also is home to the nation's marquee gubernatorial race.

       The winner in the presidential race will take the state's 16 electoral votes.Polls close at 7:30 p.m. local time.

       State significance North Carolina has only backed the Democratic nominee for president once since 1980 (in 2008 for former President Barack Obama by 14,000 votes), but it is still a top target for the party and a top swing state.

       Former President Donald Trump only took it by under 1.5 points in 2020, and Democrats have insisted that the mushrooming population in the "research triangle," anchored by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, will help boost their vote share in the state.

       However, Republicans have been able to keep their margins in the state's vast rural expanses large enough to offset Democrats' advantage in North Carolina's more urban areas.

       North Carolina is also home to the country's most competitive gubernatorial race this year, pitting state Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democrat, against Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate.

       Stein held a consistent polling lead in the race, while Robinson was hammered by Democrats for controversial comments he made about Jewish people, LGBTQ+ people and more, culminating in a bombshell CNN report that Robinson used disturbing and inflammatory language in the comments section of a pornographic website years ago, including calling himself a "black NAZI."

       Counties are colored red or blue when the % expected vote reporting reaches a set threshold. This threshold varies by state and is based on patterns of past vote reporting and expectations about how the vote will report this year.