As Election Day Gets Under Way, Over 82 Million Americans Have Already Cast their Ballots

More than 82 million Americans had already cast their votes as Election Day began, surpassing half the total voter turnout of the 2020 presidential election already. This early turnout, reflects a substantial increase in both early in-person and mail-in ballots, with more than 44 million early votes cast in person and 37 million by mail as of Monday evening. The exact number, captured in data from the Associated Press, is 82,254,366.

Battleground states like North Carolina and Georgia have already had record early voting numbers, according to The Hill which reports that the North Carolina State Board of Elections set an early voting record with more than 4.2 million voters casting early ballots at in-person voting sites. In 2020, 3.6 million North Carolinians cast their ballots early, which set the previous record.

Election officials across the nation reported minimal disruptions, with in-person and mail voting proceeding smoothly, even in areas of western North Carolina that were affected by Hurricane Helene. In the 25 western counties hit by the hurricane, voter turnout was slightly above the state's average, as election officials worked to ensure polling sites remained accessible despite storm damage.

As for Georgia, the state shattered records with more than 300,000 ballots cast on the first day of early voting. Georgia election officials estimated the number was 123% higher than the previous record.

According to Fortune, the high turnout has been driven partly by Republicans who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats' longstanding advantage in the early vote.

As AP reported a few weeks back, campaigns usually want their voters to cast ballots ahead of Election Day so they can focus their resources on getting more marginal supporters to the polls at the last minute. The GOP had excelled at the strategy before Trump turned against early in-person and mail voting in 2020, as he spun conspiracies about the process and convinced his supporters to wait until Election Day to cast their ballots.