More Than 30 Million Americans Have Already Voted, With Early Turnout Outpacing 2022 a Week Before the Midterms

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (TodayViralUSA) — More than 30 million Americans have already cast ballots in the 2026 midterm elections, one week before Election Day, with early turnout running ahead of the pace set four years ago as both parties race to bank votes in a contest that will decide control of Congress.

NBC News’ early-vote tracker counted more than 32.5 million mail and in-person ballots nationwide as of late Tuesday morning, while the On Point Politics tracker put the figure at about 31.1 million across 46 reporting states, roughly 8% ahead of the same point in 2022. The totals differ because trackers draw on different state and county data and update at different times.

Records fall in the South

In South Carolina, early voting has already surpassed the record set in the last midterm. In Georgia, nearly 2 million people have voted ahead of the Nov. 3 election, and turnout there was about 7% ahead of the same stage of 2022 by midday Tuesday, according to figures cited by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Journal-Constitution reported encouraging signs for Democrats in parts of metro Atlanta and an influx of diverse voters who skipped the last midterm, while Republicans posted gains in some north Atlanta exurbs and are working to lift sluggish turnout in rural areas.

“While we have seen the momentum that we need to see this first week of early voting, we don’t want to be overtaken on Election Day,” said Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for Georgia governor.

What the numbers do and don’t show

In states that report party registration, registered Democrats account for a larger share of early ballots than registered Republicans. NBC’s tracker shows about 47% of early voters registered as Democrats and 35% as Republicans, with the rest unaffiliated or unknown.

Analysts caution that party registration shows who has voted, not how they voted, and that Republicans have in recent cycles leaned more heavily on Election Day voting. Tens of millions of requested mail ballots have yet to be returned.

Legal fights over ballots

The surge comes as the Trump administration pursues legal efforts to keep some ballots from being counted. A federal appeals court on Monday rejected the Justice Department’s emergency bid to force California to set aside about 20,000 mail ballots the department says likely belong to noncitizens, sending the dispute back to a district judge. The department has also asked Washington state to set aside ballots from more than 400 people it suspects of registering without U.S. citizenship.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, accused the administration of “planning their post-election loss excuses by planting seeds across the country to sow distrust.”

President Donald Trump is campaigning in Texas on Tuesday after a rally in Mississippi on Monday, as Republicans contend with voter frustration over higher costs tied to the war with Iran.