More than 43 million Americans have voted early ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections
More than 43 million Americans had cast ballots early or by mail by Friday, according to University of Florida Election Lab data cited by the BBC, and AP reported that early voting was running nearly 10 million ahead of the same point in the 2022 midterms.
More than 43 million Americans had voted early in person or by mail ahead of the US midterm elections on Tuesday 3 November, according to University of Florida Election Lab data reported by the BBC on Friday 30 October.
The Associated Press reported that nearly 10 million more Americans had cast ballots five days before Election Day than at the same point before the 2022 midterms, with sharp increases in several states with competitive Senate races.
Professor Mike McDonald, who runs the Election Lab database, told the BBC that four to five million early votes were being cast each day. He said Texas had seen the largest rise above its usual turnout, with more than 5.8 million ballots cast there, about 1.75 million more than its 2022 total at the time of his figures.
In the roughly half of states where voters register with a party, 44% of early ballots had been cast by registered Democrats, 31.2% by Republicans and 24.7% by voters with no party affiliation as of Thursday, the BBC reported. McDonald noted that the data does not show which candidates people voted for.
The city of Minneapolis said on Thursday it had set an early voting record for a non-presidential election, according to the BBC. Early voting options will close in many states in the days before Tuesday’s vote, which decides control of both chambers of Congress.
Early voting totals are fast-moving; figures are as of 17:30 GMT on 30 October.
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