Early Voting Numbers: More Than 43 Million Americans Have Voted, and Texas Leads the Surge Past 5.8 Million
The University of Florida Election Lab count crossed 43 million on Thursday, with Texas about 1.75 million ballots past its entire 2022 early total — and one day of early voting still to go.
More than 43 million Americans have voted early ahead of the November 3 midterms, according to the University of Florida Election Lab figures reported Thursday, and Texas is leading the surge. More than 5.8 million ballots are already in across Texas — about 1.75 million above the state's entire 2022 early total, Election Lab director Michael McDonald said in the reporting — with the final day of early voting still ahead on Friday.
The pace is the story of the cycle, according to the Lab's account: four to five million early votes have been landing each day nationally, a faster pace than in most previous cycles, and turnout appears on track to beat 2020 and 2018, which broke the 1914 midterm record. In states that record party registration, Democrats have cast about 44 percent of early ballots and Republicans 31.2 percent, with 24.7 percent from voters with no affiliation, according to Thursday's Lab figures — and McDonald cautions that Election Day usually tilts Republican and the early count cannot predict the result.
The state-reported Texas numbers tell the same story at a slightly different hour: the Secretary of State's unofficial tally through Tuesday, October 27 — day nine of twelve — stood at 5,467,834 early in-person voters and 227,468 mail ballots, for 5,695,302 early votes reported statewide. FOX 7 Austin's Wednesday check put the state figure at about 5.5 million people, 29 percent of the 19 million Texans registered to vote, with wait times down across the Austin metro on Wednesday and campaigns watching for a final Friday dash.
What is left is short and fixed: early voting ends Friday, October 30, in Texas, there is no voting on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, with polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bexar County's own final-day hours and sites are in this station's voter guide, published this morning.
