More than 43 million Americans have voted early ahead of midterms

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 31 Oct, 16:33 · Archive

More than 43 million Americans have cast early ballots ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, with Democrats leading national polls.

More than 43 million Americans have cast early ballots ahead of the US midterm elections on Tuesday, which will determine which party controls Congress. According to data from the University of Florida Election Lab, early voting is proceeding at a much higher rate than in most previous elections, with four to five million votes cast daily.

The surge in early voting appears to be driven partly by Hispanic communities, which are seeing unusually high turnout. Overall early voting figures appear on track to outpace 2020 and possibly 2018, which had previously set the record for turnout in a midterm election.

Texas has emerged as a particularly active battleground. The state has already surpassed its 2022 early voting numbers by around 1.75 million voters, with more than 7 million votes cast so far. In Harris County, which includes Houston, 862,700 people had voted as of Wednesday, compared with 564,500 at the same point in 2022.

In states that require voters to register a political affiliation, early ballots show Democrats leading. Figures show that 44 per cent of early ballots have been cast by Democrats and 31.2 per cent by Republicans, with 24.7 per cent from voters with no party affiliation. However, this data applies only to roughly half of states that track such information. Early voting among unaffiliated voters is also up, though it does not indicate which candidates they support.

National polls show Democrats ahead by 8.2 percentage points in the congressional ballot average, according to RealClearPolling. A separate Economist/YouGov survey found that 44 per cent of registered voters expect Democrats to control the House, compared with 31 per cent expecting Republicans to retain it. Expectations were closer for the Senate, with 39 per cent expecting a Democratic majority and 36 per cent a Republican one.

How it is being reported

• More than 50m Americans cast ballots in early voting with three days to go before midtermsRecord number of early votes cast, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans in states which collect that information There has been a surge of early voting for the US midterm elections, with millions more Americans going to the polls compared with the last such election amid a series of tight contests that will determine control of Congress. More than 50.5m early votes have been cast across the US as of Saturday morning, according to an analysis by the University of Florida . This is already nearly 5m more votes than the total number of early votes made in the last midterm elections, in 2022.…Guardian World · 31 Oct, 16:13
• US midterms: 3 days to go – What latest polls say as early voting surgesMore than 43 million Americans have voted early as Democrats lead opinion polls and Trump prepares for final rallies.Al Jazeera · 31 Oct, 06:59
• More than 43 million ballots cast so far in midterms early voting surgeHispanic voters have helped drive the early voting numbers, which appear to outpace overall turnout for previous elections in some battleground counties.BBC News · 29 Oct, 19:50

In this story: United States · Texas · Harris County · Democrats · Republicans · University of Florida Election Lab

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