US midterm early voting hits a record 47.9 million before Election Day
Nearly 48 million Americans had already voted by midday on Friday, passing the previous midterm early-voting record of 45.9 million set in 2022, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab.
A record 47.9 million Americans had already voted in next week's midterm elections by midday on Friday, passing the previous midterm early-voting record before Election Day, according to figures from the University of Florida's Election Lab reported by Agence France-Presse.
The Election Lab had recorded 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by midday on Friday, surpassing the 45.9 million early votes cast ahead of Election Day in 2022. The total covers ballots cast in person at early-voting centres and ballots returned by mail.
The midterms, on Tuesday, November 3, will decide control of the United States Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's current term, with the House, a third of the Senate and a string of governorships at stake. The record early turnout comes at the end of a campaign in which both parties have poured money and rallies into the final days.
The surge has been especially pronounced in states with fiercely contested Senate races that could determine control of the chamber. In Texas, more than six million people had voted early by Wednesday, according to official figures, with in-person turnout running around 50 percent ahead of the same stage in 2022.
Georgia recorded another milestone on Thursday, when in-person early voting exceeded the state's previous midterm record. In Kansas, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall faces a tough re-election fight, advance ballots were running around two-thirds ahead of 2022 last week, according to the secretary of state's office.
In states that register voters by political affiliation, the Election Lab figures showed Democrats accounting for around 44 percent of early voters, compared with 31 percent for Republicans and 25 percent for unaffiliated or minor-party voters. The figures describe registration, not the choices marked on the ballot papers themselves.
University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald, who oversees the Election Lab, has pointed to rising participation among Black and Hispanic voters in states that report racial and ethnic data, with particularly strong turnout in heavily Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border.
In Georgia, where early in-person voting broke the state's midterm record on Thursday, women accounted for 56 percent of ballots cast by that day, compared with 44 percent for men, according to the figures cited in the reports.
Analysts cautioned, however, against reading the early-voting figures as a prediction of the final result. A voter's party registration does not reveal which candidates they supported, and tens of millions more Americans are still expected to cast ballots on Tuesday itself.
Higher early participation also does not automatically mean higher overall turnout, experts stressed, since some voters may simply be casting ballots sooner than they did in previous elections rather than adding to the total number of people who vote.
The record nevertheless sets the stage for a high-turnout finish to the campaign. With early voting now past its previous midterm peak and Election Day still to come, the final total will depend on how many of the tens of millions of registered voters who have not yet voted turn out on Tuesday, in a contest both parties have framed as decisive for the direction of the country.
