Election Day Arrives With More Than 57 Million Ballots Already Cast and a Long Count Likely

November 3, 2026 · Category: Field & Elections

Election Day voting is now underway in all 50 states, and a large part of the midterm electorate has already voted. The first polling places opened in Vermont shortly after 5 a.m. Eastern, followed at 6 a.m. by Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, The Guardian reported. All 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are on the ballot, along with measures on topics from election administration to abortion access, according to the paper's guide to poll closing times.

The advance vote has grown since Monday. As of 7:30 a.m. Eastern, NBC News' early vote tracker counted 57,526,926 mail and early in-person ballots nationally, about 25.1 million by mail and 32.4 million in person, using TargetSmart and state data. The University of Florida's analysis puts the total above 58 million, per The Guardian. Counts vary by source and time: the Associated Press figure of more than 54 million is nearly 9 million above early voting in 2022, Fox News reported.

That head start shapes how tonight will look. Registered Democrats account for 46% of early ballots and registered Republicans 35% in NBC's data, but party registration is not a vote, and NPR's Domenico Montanaro notes that Republican voters cast ballots overwhelmingly in person on Election Day. Same-day turnout therefore matters a great deal, and the order in which states count early, mail and in-person ballots can make the first returns look very different from the final ones.

The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern in parts of Kentucky and Indiana. Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and Vermont follow at 7 p.m.; North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30; and a large bloc including Pennsylvania, Michigan and most of Texas at 8 p.m. California and Washington close at 11 p.m. Eastern, and the last polls in Alaska close at 1 a.m., according to Fox News. Both NPR and The Guardian caution that close contests, differing state rules for processing mail ballots, and possible recounts or legal challenges could push final results days or weeks past tonight.

Why it matters

For campaigns and voters, the remaining hours are about Election Day turnout and making sure voters in line at closing time can still vote. For everyone watching results, early returns are only part of the count. Each state's rules for when mail and early ballots are tallied decide how fast the picture fills in, and slow counts are normal, not a sign that something has gone wrong.

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