13 days
until election day
Note: Includes states that can start sending mail ballots to voters, have reported ballots returned or have begun early in-person voting.
When Election Day comes on Nov. 5, millions of voters will have already cast their ballots early, both by mail and in person. This page is tracking those votes and requests for absentee ballots as they come in.
Absentee ballots and early in-person votes as a percentage of voters, compared with total early votes in 2020.
Notes: Includes absentee ballots that have been accepted by each state. Not all returned absentee ballots are accepted.
Early voting surged in the 2020 presidential election, driving a massive increase in overall turnout and helping Joseph R. Biden Jr. secure his victory. Many states made early voting easier that year because of the pandemic, but over the last four years some states have passed laws that will make it harder for voters to cast ballots early in this election. The number of people who have requested absentee ballots in each state offers an indication of how strong the early turnout may be.
Ballots requests as a percentage of voters, compared with total requests in 2020.
Notes: Data is for ballots requested or sent, depending on the available data in each state.
The strength of early voting in this election will be important for the campaigns of both former President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, about 60 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans who voted did so by mail, according to a study by the M.I.T. Election Data and Science Lab.
As a percentage of voters registered to a party.
Notes: Data is from states where ballots must be requested and party registration data is reported. Ballot requests are not the same as actual votes.
Despite Mr. Trump’s frequent false claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, Republicans have made efforts to encourage early voting in this election. In Pennsylvania, the party has pledged more than $10 million to persuade Republicans to vote by mail in November. But so far, the number of ballot requests made by registered Democrats in the state has far outpaced requests made by Republicans.
Among the states that made changes to early voting rules since 2020 were Georgia and North Carolina, both important swing states. In Georgia, the Republican legislature and governor passed a sweeping law that decreased the time to request absentee ballots, imposed strict new ID requirements for those ballots and significantly limited the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes.
North Carolina has added similar restrictions, and it sent absentee ballots to voters two weeks late this year after a court ordered the last-minute removal of Robert F. Kennedy’s name from the ballots. Hurricane Helene created challenges for voters in the state as well, causing significant damage and accessibility issues at 10 early voting sites.
This page will be regularly updated with the latest data on early voting in each state, and figures may change as new sources of information become available.