More than 43 million ballots cast so far in midterms early voting surge

More than 43 million Americans have already cast their ballots with less than a week to go before the midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress.

Data from the University of Florida Election Lab shows early voting continuing at a blistering pace, with four to five million additional early votes being counted each day, said Professor Mike McDonald, who runs the lab.

Texas has seen the highest above-average turnout rate so far. The state has already surpassed its 2022 early-voting numbers by about 1.75 million voters, McDonald said, with some counties on track to beat their entire 2022 turnout before election day arrives.

Overall turnout appears on track to outpace both 2020 and 2018, the latter of which broke the record for overall turnout dating back to 1914.

In states that require voters to register a political affiliation, 44 percent of early ballots have been cast by Democrats and 31.2 percent by Republicans, with a further 24.7 percent from voters who chose not to register with a party, according to figures released Thursday. Early voting is also up among unaffiliated voters.

Communities of colour have been driving much of the surge, McDonald said, a trend visible in the three states that require voters to report their race: North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Some local officials have already confirmed records. Minneapolis said Thursday its early-voting totals had broken city records. Early voting has boomed since the Covid pandemic, and voters increasingly prefer to cast early ballots in person, McDonald added, suggesting concerns about postal voting may be behind that trend, though no data confirms it.

Source: BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30rlxkjv2yko)