Early in-person voting smash records

(by Melissa Quinn, CBS News) – With early voting underway in all seven battleground states and in another three dozen states, millions of Americans have cast their ballots already.

More than 28 million people have voted early so far, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab, with the most voting by mail. Democrats are outpacing Republicans in casting their ballots early, data from 25 states that report party registration shows.

More Republicans have cast roughly 327,000 more ballots in person so far, while more Democrats have returned 1.3 million more mail ballots than registered GOP voters, according to the Election Lab.

Record number of ballots cast in some states 

The high numbers of voters casting their ballots before Election Day on Nov. 5 has set records in at least two battleground states, North Carolina and Georgia. In Georgia, which President Biden won in 2020, more than 25% of active voters have already cast their ballots, according to Gabe Sterling, chief operating officer for secretary of state.

And in North Carolina, where the western part of the state was devastated by Hurricane Helene, more than 353,000 people voted on the first day of the state’s early-voting period, which was Oct. 17. That figure surpassed the prior record for the opening day of early voting: more than 348,000 in 2020, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Both surpassed the mark of 2 million votes cast Wednesday. Early voting in Georgia lasts until Nov. 1, and in-person early voting runs until Nov. 2 in North Carolina.

In Nevada, another battleground state, more than 397,000 voters had cast ballots as of Tuesday, with 40% from registered Republicans, according to the secretary of state.

David Becker, a CBS News election law contributor and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, cautioned that the breakdown of early voting by party does not portend the outcome of the election.

States report party registration data, and a voters’ political affiliation may not correspond with the candidate who won their vote.

“We won’t know until the votes get counted,” Becker said. …

Published at CBS News on Oct. 24, 2024. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

The following is a breakdown of some of the states’ early voting numbers:

Republicans’ Early Voting Lead in Nevada ‘Unheard Of’

Nearly 20,000 more registered Republicans have voted in Nevada thus far in the presidential election than registered Democrats, according to data released on Wednesday, which one local politics expert described as “unheard of at this point in any other presidential cycle.”

According to figures from the Nevada Secretary of State’s office, shared on X by Decision Desk data analyst Michael Pruser, 159,388 registered Republicans had voted in the Silver State as of Wednesday evening, well ahead of the 140,878 Democrats and 97,529 voters with a different or no party affiliation.

The early results in the key swing state come as a blow to the Democrats, who have historically performed well with early and mail in voters. Recent surveys suggest the race remains too close, with election website FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes survey data, giving Trump a 51 percent chance of victory in November versus 49 percent for Harris.

Jon Ralston, editor of The Nevada Independent, described the results as “unheard of at this point in any other presidential cycle” on X, and said there is “no good news” in the figures for Democrats in a blogpost on his website. … (from Newsweek)

Wisconsin’s record high early in-person turnout causes voting delays

Wisconsin’s first day of early in-person balloting saw soaring turnout that overwhelmed the statewide voter-registration system, creating crashes and delays for enthusiastic voters in the swing state.

While absentee and mail-in voting has been underway for more than a month, Tuesday was the first day Cheeseheads could cast a ballot in person, and more than 97,000 took advantage — 22% more than 2020’s first in-person voting day. (from AOL News)

South Carolinians Break Record on Opening Day of Early Voting

More than 125,000 voters turned out to cast their ballot on the first day of early voting, topping the previous one-day record for early voting set in the 2022 General Election.

New record (October 21, 2024): Approximately 125,900
Old record (November 4, 2022): Approximately 70,100

“We are thrilled to see voters embracing the convenience of early voting, and we are anticipating a significant turnout for this election,” said Howie Knapp, Executive Director of the State Election Commission (SEC). (from the South Carolina Election Commission)

Georgia Voters Smash Records on First Day of Early Voting

Tuesday October 15th marked the first day of Early Voting for the November 5th Presidential Election. Georgia voters turned out in record numbers for a Presidential year.

As of Tuesday, October 15th just over 310,000 Georgia voters have cast their ballot during Early Voting. This is up from 70,849 on the first day of Early Voting in the 2018 midterm election, 136,739 in the 2020 Presidential Election, and beats the first day of Early Voting of 134,962 in the 2022 midterm election.

Statewide, reports of long lines were minimal, though there were some reports of voters waiting in line for more than 30 minutes from a few popular voting locations in metro areas. Early voting turnout is expected to increase during the final week of early voting…
Turnout Numbers Through 10/16/2024 at 1:30pm:

Total Turnout: 459,250
Early In-Person: 431,895
Absentee: 27,350

(from Georgia Secretary of State website)

North Carolina Tops 1 Million Votes Cast

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the fourth day of in-person early voting in North Carolina, more than 1 million voters had cast ballots in the 2024 general election, according to preliminary State Board of Elections data.

This turnout total — 1,008,123 ballots cast — is broken down into the following voting methods:

In-person early voting: 916,433
Absentee (civilian): 77,831
Absentee (overseas): 11,168
Absentee (military): 2,691
The ballots cast number represents a statewide turnout of about 13 percent of North Carolina’s nearly 7.8 million registered voters.

Through Saturday, nearly 863,000 voters had cast ballots during the first three days of the in-person early voting period. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent over 2020, when nearly 843,000 voters had cast ballots after three days of in-person voting. In 2020, more voters voted absentee ballots because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (from North Carolina State Board of Elections website)

Louisiana sets new record for the first day of early voting – Nearly 177,000 cast ballots on first day

Louisiana set a new record for the first day of early voting, slightly exceeding its total from four years ago when officials had to take measures for the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 176,882 voters cast ballots Friday for the Nov. 5 election when including absentee ballots, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. That’s 1.3% more when compared with 174,533 votes submitted on day one of early voting in the 2020 election.

In-person voting on day one topped 94,000, figures show.

…Turnout by party has historically leaned heavily in favor of Democrats, who have accounted for roughly half or more of the state’s early voters in each of the past four presidential elections.

However, Republicans held a slight edge on day one of early voting this year. They totaled 75,455 votes to 74,311 for Democrats. “Other” voters accounted for 27,166 votes. (from Louisiana Illuminator)