State election offices report sharp gains over the 2022 midterm in North Carolina, Texas and Georgia, with eight days until the Nov. 3 election.
Numbers as of 7 a.m. ET Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Each state figure carries the date of the official release or file it comes from.
More than 20 million Americans had cast ballots in the 2026 midterm elections as of Thursday, Oct. 22, according to an Associated Press count of data from 46 states. AP said that equals just over a third of all early votes cast in the 2022 midterms and about 21% of the early vote in 2024.
How many people have voted early in 2026 nationwide
No federal agency publishes a running national early-vote total. National figures are assembled from state reports, which arrive on different schedules and in different formats.
The Hill reported on Saturday, Oct. 24, that more than 23 million ballots had been accepted nationwide, compared with more than 15 million at a similar point in 2022.
Early-vote gains in key states
North Carolina
North Carolina election officials had accepted 1,577,014 early in-person and mail ballots through Sunday, Oct. 25, according to State Board of Elections data. That is 35.5% more than the 1,163,476 ballots accepted at the same point before the 2022 midterm.
The 2026 total already equals about 72% of all early and mail ballots accepted in North Carolina in 2022. The state has accepted more than 165,000 ballots on every weekday since early voting opened Oct. 15. One-stop early voting ends at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.
Texas
Texas voters cast 4,160,466 ballots in person and by mail through Saturday, Oct. 24, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s early-voting report. That is about 21.9% of the state’s 19 million registered voters. An Associated Press analysis found Texas early voting through Oct. 20 was up 74% from the same point in 2022.
The total already exceeds half of the 8,102,908 votes cast in the entire 2022 general election, according to the Secretary of State’s turnout history. Politics Elections reported Sunday on the state’s record pace. Early voting in Texas runs through Friday, Oct. 30.
Georgia
Georgia passed 1 million in-person early votes by noon Tuesday, Oct. 20, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The 1,007,015 in-person total was 12% above the 894,412 recorded at the same point in 2022.
Counting 48,916 accepted absentee ballots, 1,055,931 Georgians had voted as of that release. Early voting in Georgia runs through Friday, Oct. 30.
Michigan
As of 7 a.m. Oct. 20, 789,572 Michigan voters had cast ballots, about 10.7% of active registered voters, the Michigan Department of State said. Mail ballot requests reached 2,121,458, up 17% from 1,810,569 two weeks before the 2022 election.
Returned mail ballots were closer to the 2022 pace: 789,476, compared with 771,967 at the same point four years ago. Early voting sites opened statewide Saturday, Oct. 24, and run through Sunday, Nov. 1.
Kansas, Maine and Ohio
The same AP analysis of data through Oct. 20 found early voting in Kansas had more than doubled from 2022, and Maine and Ohio were each up more than 30%.
AP noted that part of the increase reflects states reporting more data than they did four years ago.
New Jersey
New Jersey opened in-person early voting Saturday, Oct. 24. Sites are open through Sunday, Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to the New Jersey Division of Elections.
What this does and doesn’t tell you
Party registration is not vote choice. In North Carolina, ballots accepted through Oct. 25 came from 655,782 registered Democrats, 545,296 unaffiliated voters and 372,068 Republicans. Registration shows who returned a ballot, not how anyone voted.
Unaffiliated voters are a growing share. North Carolina’s unaffiliated early vote is up about 59% from the same point in 2022, the largest gain among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. Those voters can back candidates of any party.
Comparisons with 2022 are imperfect. Some states have added early-voting days or report more data than four years ago, which can inflate year-over-year gains.
Early votes are not extra votes. A strong early turnout can reflect voters shifting from Election Day rather than higher overall turnout. Habits change from cycle to cycle.
No results are reported yet. These figures count ballots cast or accepted, not ballots tallied for any candidate. Not every state publishes daily early-vote counts.
About these numbers
The national figures are from AP and The Hill, as attributed. State figures are from official state election offices: North Carolina’s absentee file updated Oct. 26, Texas’ statewide early-voting report through Oct. 24, and Georgia and Michigan releases dated Oct. 20. Sunday figures for Texas were incomplete when checked and are not included.
