RALEIGH – An ActiVote poll released Oct. 20 found Democrat Roy Cooper leading Republican Michael Whatley 56.9% to 43.1% among 400 likely midterm voters in North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate race.
The poll was conducted from Oct. 8 through Oct. 20, with a median response date of Oct. 14. The 13.8-point difference is one snapshot of the contest and should not be read as a forecast of the Nov. 3 election.
ActiVote describes the survey as an opt-in, nonprobability poll drawn from users of its free mobile app. Participants voluntarily record political preferences, and the company says it uses each participant’s most recent response rather than actively soliciting a new answer for every poll. Panelists are not paid, and ActiVote says it does not use quotas.
The company says it weighted the results using age, gender, party affiliation, ethnicity, income, education, voting likelihood, region and political spectrum. Its disclosure says voter-file information from L2 helps validate registrants and informs the likely-voter model.
ActiVote reports an “average expected error” of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points for this sample size. The company says that figure is based on how its prior polls performed. Because respondents were not selected through a probability sample, that measure is not a conventional statistical margin of error. ActiVote also cautions that results for subgroups would have larger expected error.
ActiVote Inc. identifies itself as the sponsor and conductor of the poll. Its disclosure says there was no poll-specific outside funding and that the company paid for the polling platform.
CallTheMap’s separately maintained North Carolina Senate archive lists the same ActiVote release, field dates, sample size and topline. That listing helps confirm the release record; it does not independently validate the survey’s accuracy.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections lists one U.S. Senate seat on the Nov. 3 ballot. In-person early voting continues through 3 p.m. Oct. 31.
Sources
- ActiVote North Carolina U.S. Senate poll and disclosure, Oct. 20, 2026
- CallTheMap North Carolina Senate poll archive
- North Carolina State Board of Elections upcoming-election information
Photo Credit: Roy Cooper photo by NetwonsBucket via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Michael Whatley photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.