Philadelphia-early
Voters wait in line to cast early ballots at Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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  • As of October 27, at least 69.4 million ballots have been cast in the 2020 election, according to Michael McDonald at the US Elections Project.
  • This figure would represent over half of all votes (50.8%) that were cast in the 2016 presidential election.
  • Texas currently leads the way with 7,803,590 early ballots cast, the highest total of any individual state in the country.
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Early voting in the US presidential election has been robust since it began a few weeks ago, but it just passed a critical milestone.

As of October 27, at least 69.4 million ballots have been cast in the 2020 election, according to Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor who runs the US Elections Project.

This figure would represent over half of all votes (50.8%) that were cast in the entire 2016 presidential election between then-GOP nominee Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That year, 136,669,276 votes were cast in total, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

 

Combined with Election Day votes, the rising number of early votes could represent a historic turnout total once all the ballots are counting, rivaling the turnout of the 1908 US presidential election, which hit 65% of the eligible US population.

Here are the three states with the highest early voting totals so far, based on data from the US Elections Project:

  • Texas leads the way with 7,803,590 ballots cast, the highest total of any individual state in the country.
  • California has the second-highest total in the country, with 7,402,302 ballots cast.
  • Florida has the third-highest level in the country, with 6,427,773 ballots cast.

Texas has voted for the Republican presidential nominee since 1980, but this year multiple polls have showed a close race between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Trump.

The state has long had low voter turnout levels in its elections, but a mix of changing demographics and infrequent or first-time voters showing up to the polls in 2020 has changed the calculus of predicting the winner of the Lone Star State, according to the Guardian.

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