50 Million Americans Have Already Cast Ballots in 2024 Election

That’s nearly a third of the 158.4 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
With early voting kicking off over the weekend in Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Michigan—the first time the battleground state has offered in-person early voting—Americans in 45 states can now vote in-person before Election Day on Nov. 5.
On Oct. 30, Oklahomans begin to cast ballots early for four days, and on Oct. 31, Kentucky’s three-day early in-person period begins.
As those states start early voting periods, Louisiana closes its early polling on Oct. 29, while Maine, Tennessee, and Maryland shut it down on Oct. 31. Three states—Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire—do not offer in-person early voting.
As has been the trend since the first ballots were cast in late September, Republicans are showing up in greater numbers to vote in person before Election Day compared to previous election cycles, while Democrats are casting the most mail-in votes but not in the numbers they did in 2020.
Early turnout over recent election cycles has been higher among Democrats than Republicans but, of the 26 of 30 states that register voters by party affiliation that Election Lab has data for, only 14 are reporting more early votes from registered Democrats than registered Republicans, it reported on Oct. 28.
That gap may not be as wide in 2024—if current trends continue—with Republicans responding to party leaders’ calls to vote early, either in person or by mail, a reversal of what unfolded in 2020, especially in northern states.
The trend is especially evident in the seven battleground states that pundits say will determine the outcome between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5.
More than 326,000 of those 1.4 million early votes were cast by nonpartisans, a key constituency in a state that President Joe Biden won by less than 13,000 votes in 2020, only the second Democrat to win Arizona since 1948.
Trump took Arizona and its 11 electoral votes in 2016 by 3.5 percentage points.
Voters don’t register by political affiliation in Georgia, but early turnouts were higher thus far in 2024 than they were in 2020 in a state that Biden won by 0.23 percent, less than 11,780 votes.
Trump won the Tar Heel State in 2016 by 3.67 percent and won again by 1.3 percent in 2020. It was the only state the former president won with less than 50 percent of the vote.
Republicans had mailed in or delivered nearly 444,000 votes, nearly 31.5 percent, and nonpartisans 147,483 ballots, 10.4 percent. That 30-plus percent turnout by Republicans is a significant boost over the 23 percent who voted in early 2020 in the Keystone State, which Biden won by 1.17 percent after Trump won in 2016 by 0.72 percentage points.
With Oct. 29 as the last day for registered voters to request a ballot to cast an early vote in Pennsylvania, the “return rate” of requested ballots takes on added significance from Oct. 30 on, and it appears the GOP is on track to easily eclipse past early voting performances,
More than 446,140 of 1 million requested mail-in ballots had been returned and 412,022 had cast ballots in person. Biden won the state by 0.63 percentage points, nearly 21,000 votes, in 2020.
Democrats had a 141,674 to 106,330 lead in mail-in ballots with 232,156 of 1.975 million—less than 17.5 percent—requested returned. More than 95,000 nonpartisans had returned ballots.
All Nevada voters automatically receive ballots in the mail unless they opt out and the state offers same-day registration on Election Day. Biden won Nevada by 2.4 percentage points, less than 34,000 votes, in 2020.