![[US Midterm Elections 2026] Early voting surges, with over 43 million votes cast by end of October](/api/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fws%2F240%2Fcpsprodpb%2F2dc0%2Flive%2Fb4358cf0-d3d1-11f1-a701-fddedf244c16.jpg)
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Max Mazza
There is less than a week left until the midterm elections that will determine whether the Republican or Democratic parties will control the U.S. Congress for the next two years. As of October 29, more than 43 million Americans had already cast their votes.
According to data from the University of Florida Election Research Institute, early voting is reaching 4 million to 5 million votes per day. This is a much higher percentage than in most past elections.
Texas has so far recorded far above average turnout, said Mike McDonald, a professor who manages the database. The Hispanic community is also seeing much higher turnout than previous years.
Voter turnout for the midterm elections as a whole is expected to exceed that of the 2020 election. The record for turnout in a midterm election, set in 1914, was broken in 2018, and there is a possibility that it could even be surpassed this time.
Professor McDonald said that in Texas, one of the battleground states, the number of early voters has already exceeded the number in 2022 by about 1.75 million people, with more than 5.8 million votes cast.
Approximately half of states require voters to register their party affiliation during primary elections, where each party selects candidates for the general election.
The registration data shows that the number of Democrats voting early has increased since last time. Meanwhile, the number of early votes cast by Republicans remains at about the same level as in 2022.
Macdonald said early voting was also increasing among voters who did not register a party, but the data does not reveal which candidates they chose.
Overall, 44% of early votes were cast by Democrats and 31.2% by Republicans. The remaining 24.7% of votes were from independents.
Three states, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, require people to declare their race when registering to vote. Data from these three states shows increased early voting in Hispanic and African American communities. White early voting numbers remain at the same level as in 2022.
"This makes sense because communities of color are more likely to align with the Democratic Party, and whites are more likely to be aligned with the Republican Party," MacDonald said.
In Texas, voters are not required to declare their party affiliation or race. But data shows that some counties along the Mexican border, where Hispanics account for more than 90% of residents, have seen a surge in early voting.
"In some counties, early voting alone will exceed turnout in 2022 (for the entire midterm election)," MacDonald said.
In the United States, the number of people voting early has increased rapidly in recent years. The move comes as more states are offering early voting options that include both in-person and mail-in voting in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 election was to choose the next president and members of Congress, and more than two-thirds of all votes were cast early. Also, half of those early votes were by mail.
Professor MacDonald said voters are increasingly preferring to vote in person, even when voting early. The deadline for returning ballots is also earlier than in previous elections.
Concerns about voting by mail may be contributing to this trend, but there is no data to show why, the professor said. According to the professor, mail-in ballots are likely to be invalidated due to errors. Additionally, some voters may be concerned about interference with the U.S. Postal Service, he said.
Records are already being broken in various regions regarding voter turnout. On the 29th, officials in Minneapolis, Minnesota, announced a new record for early voting in a non-presidential election.
As voting day on November 3 approaches, states are beginning to close early voting. As a result, early voting will soon start to taper off.
(English article More than 43 million ballots cast so far in midterms early voting surge)
