Early Voting in the 2026 Midterms Tops 50 Million Ballots
More than 50.5 million Americans had cast early votes in the 2026 midterm elections as of Saturday morning, Oct. 31, according to a University of Florida analysis reported by The Guardian. The midterms are the congressional elections held midway through a president's four-year term, and early votes are ballots cast before Election Day.
The early total is already nearly 5 million higher than all the early votes cast in the 2022 midterms, the Guardian reported. An Associated Press analysis found that nearly 10 million more Americans had cast ballots five days before Election Day than had at the same point in 2022.
Texas has seen one of the larger totals. More than 7 million people had voted early there, according to University of Florida data, which is 1.5 million more than the number who voted early in the state during the 2022 midterms. In Harris County, which includes Houston, 862,700 people had voted as of Wednesday, compared with 564,500 at the same point in 2022, according to AP analysis.
Growth varied by state. Early voting is up 83% in South Carolina from the 2022 midterms, and up 44% in Maine, 34% in Kansas and 32% in Michigan, the Guardian reported.
Party data is available only in states that record voters' party registration. In those states, 10.7 million registered Democrats had voted early, compared with 7.8 million registered Republicans.
Republicans are defending a 53-47 majority in the Senate, the chamber of Congress that confirms many federal appointments and votes on laws alongside the House of Representatives. Earlier in the month, Reuters reported that more than 100 million people were likely to cast ballots in the 2026 midterm voting if turnout matched the previous midterm election.
