It’s Election Day in America. As voters head to the polls around the country, the early vote data CNN has been tracking tells a clear story.
Overall, early voting was well ahead of the pace in 2022 and this year, pre-election voters were more likely to be Democratic, and less likely to be White, than they were in the last midterm elections. And while mail voting is still more Democratic than in-person early voting is, it appears to be making up a smaller portion of the electorate, with more Democratic voters especially choosing to vote in person.
While the early voting picture points toward a favorable environment for Democrats, just as other data has — from polling and primary turnout to special election results — the advantage is not insurmountable.
For several cycles, Republicans have preferred to vote on Election Day, and much of the story of the 2026 midterms will be determined by what the breakdown of voters looks like today.
Total ballot counts in each state come from data compiled by CNN, the Associated Press and the data firm Catalist.
These data don’t show the party a person voted for, only the party with which they’re registered and so it’s not available in states without formal party registration.
It also only shows one slice of voters: a slice that is typically older and less Republican than the electorate as a whole.
Comparisons to previous cycles come from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit advocacy groups, including insights into who is voting before Election Day.
Here are four takeaways from a historic year of early voting.
More people voted early
Overall, early voting was up across the country. Nationally, pre-election voting has roughly equaled 2022, and that’s with data unavailable or limited from several states, and before the significant number of mail ballots received on Election Day are included.
Twenty-eight states surpassed their total 2022 pre-election voting, including key states like Texas, Michigan, South Carolina and North Carolina.
And in state after state, especially those without universal mail voting, the biggest turnout increases have come in places that voted most strongly for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
Democrats made up a larger share of pre-election voters
This year, Democratic voters cast more pre-election ballots than Republicans by a margin of 13 points across 25 states, according to data from Catalist — up more than three points from the Democratic share of the early vote at the same point in the last midterm elections.
While both parties are seeing elevated levels of early voting compared to 2022, Democrats have had much larger increases.
For example, in North Carolina, where Democratic candidate Roy Cooper is favored to flip the GOP-held open Senate seat, Republicans have cast about 63,000 more ballots than they had at this point in 2022, according to data from the State Board of Elections. But Democrats have cast about 260,000 more and unaffiliated voters have cast about 340,000 more.
In Kansas, where Republican Roger Marshall is fighting for a second term in a race Cook Political Report has deemed a toss-up, Republicans have cast a little less than 40% more ballots than they had at this point in the last midterm, while the amount of Democratic ballots cast has more than doubled, and no-party voters are up nearly 90%, according to data from Catalist.
The shift towards Democrats across those 25 states is even more pronounced when compared to 2024 — the Democratic advantage is about nine points wider than it was at this point two years ago.
In 2022, the Democratic advantage in early voting was cut because about 60% of self-identified Republicans voted on Election Day. A larger share of Republicans voted early in 2024, which resulted in a smaller Democratic advantage in the pre-election vote.
While the fact that someone voted is generally public information, a person’s ballot itself is secret, so this data can’t tell us how many votes a party or candidate has won. That won’t be known until after states start reporting results after polls close on Election Day.
Pre-election voters are more diverse
Across 40 states for which Catalist has comparable data, White voters made up 71% of the early voting electorate, down from about 76% at the same point in 2022.
Meanwhile, the share of ballots from Black and Latino voters are both up about two points.
The increase in Black voters is especially notable in the South. In Louisiana, Black voters are a nearly nine-point greater share of the electorate than they were two years ago, according to Catalist. In Tennessee, it’s nearly four points, and in both states, almost twice as many Black voters have turned out as had at the same point in 2022.
The biggest increase in Latino vote share has been in Texas, where Democratic candidate James Talarico is trying to flip a critical Senate seat for his party. The Latino share of the early vote is up nearly five points from where it was in 2022 and nearly 60% more Latino voters have turned out in the state, according to data from Catalist.
The Latino vote share is also up about four points in California and Nevada, both of which also feature key statewide or congressional races.
Mail voting is down, while Democratic early in-person surged
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, mail voting became incredibly politically polarized.
In 2022, about 38% of Democrats voted by mail, according to the CNN Exit Poll, compared to 22% of Republicans.
But this year, there’s evidence across several states that fewer people will vote by mail, and the method may not be quite as heavily Democratic as it has been in the recent past.
In North Carolina, early in-person voting was up 36% compared to this point in 2022, and Democrats have a 12-point lead, up more than six points, according to state data.
But mail voting is actually down 35%, and the Democratic advantage, while much wider than the in-person margin, is nearly five points narrower than it was at this point four years ago.
It’s a similar story in Iowa and Ohio. In-person voting is running much more popular relative to historic trends than mail voting is, and in each, early in-person voters are much more Democratic than in past cycles, while mail voting is either more Republican or at least has seen a smaller Democratic shift.
Pre-election voters are typically older than Election Day voters. Mail voting especially can be a convenient option for older people who might have trouble getting to the polls. In fact, in many states where voters need an excuse to vote by mail, age itself can qualify.
And a midterm electorate is also typically older than that in a presidential year.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Democratic candidate James Talarico’s last name and had an incorrect percentage for the increase of Latino early voters in Texas since 2022.