Early voting rush breaks records

So far, Democratic turnout outpacing GOP, data shows

Millions of Americans are breaking voter-turnout records with three weeks to go before Election Day, with Democrats casting early ballots at a far higher rate than Republicans.

Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic have increased mail-in voting and led to unprecedented levels of early voting, especially among Democrats. More than 17 million voters have cast their ballot early, either in person or by mail, in states that report voting data, according to the University of Florida Elections Project.

As President Donald Trump and the Republican Party bet on Election Day in-person turnout, states that he won by a small margin in 2016 are seeing more Democrats voting early.

With 18 days of frenetic campaigning by Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden still ahead, many states allow early voting. This year, with enthusiasm running high, voters have already cast nearly 13% of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election.

Battleground states like Ohio and Georgia among others have already set records in voter turnout. In other critical states, such as Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin, early voting turnout has already reached 20% or more of the total turnout for the 2016 election.

Democrats are significantly outpacing Republicans in early voting turnout in the 15 states that report party registration data, according to the Elections Project. Democrats have returned almost 2.5 million more ballots in those states than Republicans have. Meanwhile, Democrats have requested 9.7 million more ballots than Republicans.

The Republican Party said its supporters will make up the difference on Nov. 3.

“The majority of our voters prefer to vote inperson, especially on Election Day,” said RNC spokesman Mike Reed. “Campaigns are won by who turns out more voters in total, not by who turns out more in the first few days of voting. We don’t put much stock in the early vote data at this point, which is only from a handful of states and in some cases contains only partial data.”

Biden is leading Trump in surveys of voters nationwide and in the key states that could decide the Electoral College victory.

The early turnout figures don’t necessarily indicate who will win the election, just the preferred method of voting by each party.