With Election Day three days away, two national trackers showed different U.S. early-vote counts, while The Guardian reported a tally above the University of Florida Election Lab’s 2022 total.
The Guardian reported more than 50.5 million ballots had been cast by Oct. 31, citing the Election Lab. Its final tally for the 2022 midterms was 45,920,446, including 20,487,803 votes cast in person and 25,432,643 returned by mail, according to the lab’s archive.
Telemundo’s tracker displayed 49,751,208 ballots at 11 a.m. ET on Oct. 31. Telemundo says its national figure combines daily state totals from TargetSmart and election officials. The Election Lab page showed a 12:14 p.m. ET update that day, while its national total appeared as “X” in the accessible text. The snapshots are not directly comparable: state figures arrive on different schedules, and the trackers draw on different sources.
The Election Lab tracks early in-person voting and mail ballots returned to election offices. Its figures reflect ballots recorded, not voters’ choices. The Guardian also reported that 10.7 million early voters were registered Democrats and 7.8 million were registered Republicans in states that collect party-registration data. The Election Lab cautions that party-registration data do not show which candidates voters supported.
An earlier Associated Press tally reported by EconoTimes put early ballots above 43 million five days before Election Day. That count covered 47 states and Washington, D.C.; the AP’s 2022 comparison covered 48 states and Washington, D.C., limiting a direct comparison between the two years.
Election Day is Nov. 3. Voters will choose all 435 House members and about one-third of the Senate, helping determine control of Congress for the next two years.
