More Americans have gone to the polls during the early voting period than in the last midterm elections.
According to data compiled by the United States Election Project, 40,114,753 early votes had been cast across the country as of Sunday afternoon. This includes 18,325,512 in-person votes as well as 21,789,241 that had been sent in. In 2018, about 39.1 million people voted early.
While the uptick could be the result of greater enthusiasm, Election Project founder Prof. Michael McDonald of the University of Florida says this is an ongoing trend due to the greater availability of early voting.
“We have been on an upward trajectory of early voting from election to election, and that’s because states are offering early voting more frequently or more expansively,” McDonald told the Washington Post.
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For example, New York did not offer early voting at all until 2019, so this year is the first midterm election where voters in the Empire State had the option.
In general, Democrats have been more likely to vote early, while Republicans have favored going in person on Election Day. That trend showed signs of shifting this year in Florida, according to the Election Project, with 43.4% of ballots already cast coming from registered Republicans, compared to 36.7% from Democrats. The other 19.9% were unaffiliated voters or those registered with minor parties.
In Pennsylvania, however, Democrats are outpacing the national average, even though the state is generally considered to be a battleground featuring a tight Senate race between John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Despite that race being considered a toss-up by the Fox News Power Rankings, Democrats have made up 69.7% of the early voters, with Republicans accounting for just 21.1%.
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National percentages have Republicans as 34% of early voters nationwide and Democrats as 43%. This, however, only takes into account the 23 states that report party information.