Early votes are in and the winner is....

Democrat Patrick Cannon is likely to have a sizable head start heading into Tuesday's mayoral election in Charlotte.

In Mecklenburg County, 22,319 people cast early ballots through Saturday, more than in 2011 but fewer than 2009.

The vast majority of voters were from Charlotte. Of those, 12,528 were Democrats, according to the board of elections. There were 5,556 Republicans and 4,217 Unaffiliated voters who cast ballots.

Russell Peck, campaign manager for Republican mayoral candidate Edwin Peacock, said a GOP analysis of city voters showed the party's share was up 2.5 percent from 2011 while Democrats' share was down 4.8 percent. But that doesn't diminish Democrats' lead going into Election Day.

Since North Carolina started early voting a decade ago, Democrats have outperformed Republicans. That has been true in state races and in Charlotte’s last two city races.

While Democrats won the early vote in state races – including the last two presidential elections – Republicans won the Election Day vote. However that hasn’t been the case in Charlotte, where Foxx won both the early vote and Election Day vote.

Peck knows Cannon will have an edge going into Tuesday. How does he plan to overcome it?

"Have a great turnout tomorrow," he said.