WASHINGTON —
Early voting has ended in many states, and others will end Monday ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Voters will decide control of the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as state and local elections.
More than 54 million voters cast early ballots, in person or by mail, according to the latest data from the University of Florida Election Lab. The University of Florida Election Lab has been gathering data directly from state and regional sources and tracking early voting since 2008.
Early voting this year has nearly matched the number of votes cast at the start of the last midterm elections in 2022, with 23 states so far surpassing early voting turnout.
Early voting data does not constitute election results and therefore it is not yet known which candidate will win their race. Some states report voters’ party affiliation, which the data includes.
The Get the Facts Data team tracks early voting and analyzes data trends. All figures are from Monday morning. Here’s what you need to know.
States with high early voting turnout
With just one day before the election, 54.5 million people voted early. This represents almost 100% of the early voting turnout in the 2022 midterm elections, and almost half of the total votes.
In Texas, early votes cast in person or by mail have exceeded the number of early votes cast in 2022, accounting for more than 138%. Texas is seeing a tight and competitive Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
Texas is one of ten states that requires voters to provide an excuse to vote absentee. About 7.7 million early ballots were cast in person.
There are 23 states, including Texas, in which early voting this year exceeded that of the last midterm elections in 2022.
Other states like Connecticut, Illinois and Louisiana also exceeded their 2022 early voting turnout rates.
Georgia is another state seeing high overall turnout so far, surpassing 2022 early voting with more than 2.8 million ballots already cast. This represents approximately 71% of the state’s total turnout in the 2022 midterm elections, including in-person voting on Election Day. Georgia has competitive races for Senate and governor.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is defending his seat against Republican challenger Mike Collins. The race for governor pits Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms against Republican candidate Rick Jackson.
Tennessee and North Carolina also have high turnout, with early voting accounting for 73% and 74% of turnout in the 2022 midterms, respectively. Both states have already surpassed 2022 early voting turnout.
How does early voter turnout work in competitive states?
Republican candidate and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Democratic candidate and former state health director Amy Acton are competing for Ohio’s open governor’s seat.
In Ohio, more than 1.6 million voters cast ballots, more than the 1.2 million early votes cast in the 2022 midterm elections.
The Cook Political Report called the race for governor and U.S. Senate seat in the state competitive.
About 1.8 million Michigan voters cast ballots before Election Day. The state allows voters to vote early, in person or by mail. This represents approximately 99% of the 2022 early voting turnout.
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are competing for the open state Senate seat.
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