Early Voting Is Way Up

“Early voting for the midterm elections has begun in states across the country, and enthusiasm — and voter turnout — both appear to be high, with hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots arriving in Florida and voters lining up around the block in Texas,” the New York Times reports.

“Turnout has surged among Republicans, Democrats and independents, according to poll data. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than seven million people had voted early.”

Said political scientist Michael McDonald: “If these patterns persist, we could see a turnout rate at least equaling the turnout rate in 1966, which was 48 percent, and if we beat that then you have to go all the way back to 1914, when the turnout rate was 51 percent. We could be looking at a turnout rate that virtually no one has ever experienced.”

Washington Post: Who’s voting early? Mostly people who would have voted anyway.