Early voting turnout shows strong interest in the 2026 midterm elections, as some states’ early-voting totals days before Election Day exceeded all early ballots cast in 2022.
This continues a decade-long trend of rising voter turnout that began with the 2016 election.
Early voting is conducted through early in-person voting and absentee voting by mail.
All states but Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire allow early in-person voting. All states allow absentee voting.
No-excuse absentee voting is permitted in 29 states. The rest require voters to provide a valid reason to vote absentee.
The District of Columbia and eight states conduct elections entirely by mail, meaning voters don’t need to request a ballot and instead receive one automatically. Those are California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington state.
In many states, voters can request an absentee ballot months ahead of the election. Ballots were available to Chicago voters on Aug. 5, and to North Carolina voters on Sept. 4.
States that conduct elections by mail automatically send a ballot to each registered voter.
Strong Turnout
Early voting periods vary by state and, in some cases, by county. Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia began on Sept. 18. Kentucky opened early voting on Oct. 29.
Early voting participation rose sharply about two weeks before Election Day. Texas votes rose from under 1 million as of Oct. 19 to nearly 4.3 million by Oct. 24. Florida reached nearly 2.8 million ballots cast by its second day of early voting, Oct. 25.
Historically, early voting peaks about one week before Election Day.
Fourteen states had exceeded their 2022 early voting totals by Oct. 29. At least 14 others were well ahead of their 2022 pace. Through Oct. 25, Mississippi’s absentee ballots reached more than 150 percent of 2022’s total for the same point in the election cycle.
In-person votes in Tennessee reached more than 1 million on Oct. 28. That’s 47 percent higher than at the same point in 2022 and 27 percent higher than all early votes that year.
South Carolina voters had approximately 800,000 by Oct. 28. That’s nearly double the number of early ballots returned by that point in 2022 and about half the total number of all votes cast in that election.
Demographics
Our early-voting sample by gender and party showed that women (55 percent) are more likely to vote early than men (45 percent). Also, Democrats (44 percent) appeared to vote in greater numbers than did Republicans (31 percent) and Others (25 percent).
Voter turnout in many states correlated with party registrations, though not in Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, or Louisiana.
Republican registrations exceeded Democrats’ by 29 percent in Iowa, yet fewer of them have voted early so far this year. Kentucky had more registered Republicans than Democrats, but Republicans lag in early voting.
New Hampshire has typically had more registered Republicans than Democrats, yet New Hampshirites favored Democrats in the 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections.
The percentage of early ballots in the 2022 election varied greatly by state. In Pennsylvania, early voting accounted for 23 percent of all ballots cast. In Georgia, 64 percent of all votes were cast before election day.
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