WASHINGTON —
With Election Day less than a week away, voters in several states have cast millions of early ballots.
More than 41 million voters have cast ballots early, either in person or by mail, according to the latest data from the University of Florida Election Lab. The University of Florida Election Lab gathers data directly from state and regional sources and has tracked early voting since 2008.
The data does not show election results, so it’s not yet known which candidates will win their races. Some states do report voters’ party affiliation, which the data includes.
The Get the Facts Data Team is tracking early voting and analyzing trends in the data. All figures are as of Thursday morning. Here’s what to know.
States with high early voting turnout
With the election five days away, more than 41 million voters have cast early ballots; that’s more than a third of all votes cast in the 2022 election.
In Texas, early ballots cast in person or by mail already make up more than 70% of the state’s 2022 turnout. Texas has a close, competitive Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
Texas is one of 10 states that require voters to provide an excuse to vote by mail. About 5.6 million ballots have been cast in person.
Mississippi, Alabama and New Hampshire do not offer universal early voting and require voters to provide an excuse to vote by mail.
Georgia is another state seeing high early voting turnout, with more than two million ballots already cast. That’s about 58% of the total turnout the state saw in the 2022 midterm elections. Georgia has competitive races for the Senate and governor.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is defending his seat against Republican challenger Mike Collins. The governor’s race is between former Atlanta Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican nominee Rick Jackson.
Tennessee and North Carolina also have high turnout, with early voting accounting for 58% and 56% of the 2022 midterm turnout, respectively.
How is early voting turnout in competitive states?
Republican nominee and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Democratic nominee and former state health director Amy Acton are competing for Ohio’s open governor seat.
In Ohio, more than a million voters have cast ballots, making up nearly 31% of the votes cast in the 2022 midterm election.
The Cook Political Report has called both the race for governor and the U.S. Senate seat in the state as competitive.
About 1.5 million voters in Michigan have voted ahead of Election Day. The state allows voters to vote early in person or by mail. More than 80% of those early votes were cast by mail.
Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are competing for the state’s open Senate seat.