Early voting numbers ahead of the November 3 US Presidential Elections seem to indicate a high interest in the polls. Over 4 million Americans have voted in what is set to be a tight race between incumbent President Donald Trump and his opponent, Joe Biden.
According to figures provided by the United States Elections Project, an organisation that compiles early voting data, 4,250,006 voters have sent in their votes ahead of the main Election Day, more than 50 times the 75,000 at this time in 2016.
Shedding more light on the motivation behind this spike in early voting, Michael McDonald who serves as the administrator of the project opines that the shift has been driven by an expansion of early and mail-in voting in many states in a bid to avoid high COVID-19 numbers, as well as an eagerness to weigh in on the political future of Trump.
“We’ve never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election,” McDonald said. “People cast their ballots when they make up their minds, and we know that many people made up their minds long ago and already have a judgment about Trump.”
McDonald also sees the number growing over time as more states begin early in-person voting, as the current number comes from just 31 states. The expansion of the means with which people can cast their votes has resulted in a steady decline in the percentage of voters who cast their ballot at a voting machine. Coupled with the coronavirus, these numbers should drop come November, however, this surge in voting has led McDonald to predict a record turnout of about 150 million, representing 65% of eligible voters, the highest rate at the polls since 1908.
As the number of early or mail-in voters in the US continues to grow from year to year starting with just 25 million total in 2004, the voting channel is encouraging non-voters to actually participate in the election process. President Trump has continued to rally against mail-in voting, stating that the process leads to election fraud. Experts have, however, claimed this accusation is false.
