North Carolina saw a record-breaking turnout with nearly 1.6 million voters coming out for Democrats.

In more than 30 counties, turnout exceeded 40 percent of registered Democrats. Early and absentee votes accounted for 500,000 of those votes, which was more than six times the number of early and absentee voting in 2006 and more than half the total votes in the primary in 2004.

More than a half-million voters have participated in early voting. More than 80 percent of them chose to participate in the Democratic rather than Republican primary. Forty-percent of the early voters were African-American.

These numbers reflect a national trend in which 35 million people came out this election season to support our Democratic candidates, and an estimated 3.5 new voters were added to the national voter rolls.

Republican turnout, in contrast, has either stayed relatively stagnated or decreased since 2000, the last contested GOP primary. Sinking turnout throughout the country for Republicans shows the contrast between Democrats and Republicans this primary season.

This record turnout during the primaries has been transformational for the Democratic Party as record numbers of new voters are being registered and our candidates are campaigning in all 50 states, running a truly national campaign.

"Democrats are energized all across the country and we're competing in all 50 states, proving that if Democrats show up and talk about our values, we will win," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "As we head towards November, I'm confident we will unite behind our nominee and harness this unprecedented enthusiasm to beat John McCain."