More than 50 million Americans have already voted a week ahead of Election Day, according to the University of Florida’s early-vote tracker.
As both candidates hit the trail for one last week of campaigning, a whole lot of votes have already been cast.
Roughly 39% of those voters are registered Democrats; about 36% are registered Republicans.
A plurality, 41%, are older than 65.
A total of about 100 million people voted early in 2020, either in person or by mail.
Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.org—the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter engagement organization—spoke to the media about this trend and how women and young people are driving a lot of this early vote.
“These narratives about apathy and exhaustion are not true. People are showing up and wanting to participate,” Hailey told Women editor Maggie McGrath, noting that for women in particular, the rollback of reproductive rights has been a motivating factor.
Vote.org has registered more than two million voters this cycle, 400,000 of whom are 18-year-olds. Hailey calls this the “largest” spike she’s seen in 18-year-olds registering, but of course, questions remain about whether these new voters actually show up and vote.
Questions also remain about what, exactly, these early vote totals mean for presidential candidates vice president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump: Hailey notes that more Republicans are voting early this year than in prior cycles.
“Traditionally a lot of Republicans have voted on Election Day itself, and the question is do we see a surge on Election Day?” she asks.
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