With one day to go before the general election, more than 78 million people have voted so far, while data show that Republicans have come within 2 percentage points of Democrats for the early-vote total.
The majority, or 42.7 million, have voted early and in person, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab. Meanwhile, about 35.8 million have returned mail-in ballots.
In states reporting by party affiliation, registered Democrats are ahead of registered Republicans by about 700,000 votes, a much closer gap than in 2020, primarily because Republican voters have shown a higher likelihood of voting early this year.
“The unexpected dynamic this election cycle is the high levels of in-person early voting, fueled by [former President] Donald Trump encouraging his supporters to vote in-person early, a departure from 2020 when he called all forms of early voting fraudulent,” wrote Michael McDonald, professor at the University of Florida, on Sunday evening….