Early Vote Tops 52 Million as Midterms Enter the Final Weekend

November 1, 2026 · Category: Field & Elections

The early vote is no longer a preview of the 2026 midterms; it is a large share of the election itself. As of Sunday, 52.2 million mail and early in-person ballots had been cast nationally, about 23.2 million by mail and 29 million in person, according to NBC News' early vote tracker, which draws on TargetSmart and state data. That already exceeds the 45.9 million ballots cast before Election Day in 2022, Scripps News reported, citing the University of Florida Election Lab.

The growth is concentrated in person. More than 28 million voters had cast in-person early ballots by Saturday, compared with about 20.5 million in 2022, Scripps reported. Texas closed early voting Friday with 7,410,631 ballots, or 38.9% of registered voters, a state midterm record well above the roughly 5.5 million early votes in 2022, CBS Texas reported, citing the Texas Secretary of State.

The jump is sharpest where the Senate map is most competitive. Compared with 2022, early voting is up 83% in South Carolina, 34% in Kansas, 44% in Maine and 32% in Michigan, according to an AP analysis cited by The Guardian. In states that report party registration, registered Democrats made up 43.2% of early ballots and Republicans 31.7%, Scripps reported. Registration is not a vote choice, though, and early voting habits have shifted between parties since 2020, so those shares say more about who has already voted than about who will win.

For voters still holding mail ballots, timing now matters most. Most states, 35 by the Center for Election Innovation & Research count, require mail ballots to arrive by Election Day. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., count ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive later, with deadlines ranging from Nov. 4 in Texas to Nov. 23 in Washington state. The U.S. Postal Service has warned that postmarks may not match the day a ballot was mailed, and it advises voters to request a free manual postmark at a post office counter.

Election night will also look different from the final count. The Congressional Research Service notes that election-night results are unofficial, that leads can change as ballots are counted, and that certification often takes days or weeks.

Why it matters

With so many ballots already cast, the last 48 hours of a campaign are less about persuasion and more about finding the voters who have not voted yet and making sure mailed ballots arrive on time. State deadlines differ widely, and close races may not be settled on election night.

Sources

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