About 2.5 million voters have already voted in several states, according to data from electoral officials
Nearly 2.5 million Americans have already cast their ballots in the midterm elections, according to data from state election officials supplied by Edison Research and Catalist, with the Nov. 8, 2022 election three weeks away, according to CNN.
In 30 states where Catalist has data for 2018 and 2022, pre-election voting is on par with four years ago. Catalist is a company that provides data, analytics, and other services to Democrats, academics, and nonprofit organizations and provides information on who is voting before elections.
While it is too early to predict whether 2022 will finally reach the exceptionally high turnout levels of 2018 and voting patterns have likely changed as the coronavirus pandemic prompted more people to vote ahead of Election Day, The data shows that so far there does not appear to have been a dramatic drop in voter interest.
Voters are already beginning to cast ballots in some of the most critical swing states of 2022: More than 370,000 votes have been cast in Michigan, nearly 237,000 in Pennsylvania and nearly 160,000 in Wisconsin.
In Illinois, former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, voted early for the legislative elections on November 8, which will define much of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Turnout on Georgia’s first day of early voting set a new state record for a midterm election, nearly doubling the figure for the same period in the previous midterm election, state election officials reported Tuesday.
More than 131,000 Georgia voters have cast ballots since early voting began Monday, according to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The figure represents an 85% increase from the 2018 midterm elections, when nearly 71,000 early votes were cast on the first day, according to the office.
In Michigan, which hosts a competitive gubernatorial race this year, and Wisconsin, which features hotly contested gubernatorial and Senate races, the breakdown of early-returned ballots by race remains flat compared to recent years, according to data that has analyzed Catalyst.
Barack and Michelle Obama have cast their ballots for the 2022 midterms. The former first couple was seen leaving a polling location in Chicago on Monday. Illinois is one of multiple states that kicked off early voting this week, ahead of Election Day on November 8. pic.twitter.com/iyQDrWHfQv
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 19, 2022
At this point in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 cycles, White Michiganders made up 85% to 87% of early ballot drop-off voters, while Black Michiganders made up 10% to 11 %.
In Wisconsin, white voters were 89% to 90% of those who had turned in ballots at this point in the last three cycles, while black voters made up 5% to 6%.
That trend hasn’t continued in Pennsylvania, which is home to competitive races for governor and Senate. There, white voters make up a larger share of those who have returned ballots compared to this point in 2020 (Catalist does not have data for Pennsylvania in 2018).
Pre-election voting data does not predict the final results.
Democrats across the country have shown a preference for casting their votes early, while many Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day.
In the legislative elections on November 8, they will elect all the members of the House of Representatives, a third of the senators and thousands of local and state positions, including several governors.