More than 53 million Americans had cast ballots before polling day in the United States midterm elections, which are held on Tuesday, 3 November.
Early turnout stood at 53.14 million as of Sunday morning US Eastern time, out of roughly 210 million registered voters, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab — the academic project that tracks early voting state by state. The figure was reported by Al Jazeera on Sunday and carried by Hiru News on Monday morning, which credits Al Jazeera. The two accounts agree on every figure below.
The breakdown
| Measure | Count |
|---|---|
| Total early votes | 53.14 million |
| In person | about 29 million |
| By mail | about 23 million |
| Registered Democrats | more than 11 million |
| Registered Republicans | about 8 million |
For comparison, 46 million had voted early at the equivalent point in the 2022 midterms. Early voting has risen most sharply in Texas, where more than 7 million people have voted — over 1.5 million more than in 2022.
The midterms decide control of the US Congress for the next two years. This desk reported the running total at more than 43 million five days out; it has risen by roughly 10 million since.
What the party figures do and do not show
The 11 million and 8 million figures count voters by the party they are registered with, not the party they voted for. Ballots are secret, and a registered Democrat may vote Republican or the reverse. The two party figures also total about 19 million against an overall 53.14 million, so most early votes counted here are not attributed to either party in the published data.
Not reported
Neither filing explains the gap between the total and the in-person and mail figures, which sum to about 52 million rather than 53.14 million — most likely rounding, but neither outlet says so. Neither gives a state-by-state table beyond Texas, nor any projection of final turnout.
