Over 21 million early votes already cast ahead of Tuesday, outpacing historic 2018 numbers

More than 21.4 ballots have been cast in 46 states, data from election officials show.

Published: November 2, 2022 7:54am

Updated: November 2, 2022 9:39am

More than 21 million votes have so far been cast ahead on Election Day, outpacing 2018 early-voting levels in three dozen states, according to the data management group Catalist.

The nonprofit, which collects and analyzes data for Democrat and progressive groups, says it uses data from the past three election cycles.

Despite the early projections, Catalist could not say whether the trend will continue before voters go to the ballot boxes on Nov. 8.

"2022 turnout is very high for a midterm so far, but it’s still difficult to say if we’ll beat the historic turnout we saw in 2018," group CEO Michael Frias told CNN on Monday.

Data from from Catalist, Edison Research and election officials show over 21.4 million ballots have been cast so far in 46 states.

Nearly 3 million pre-election ballots have been cast in Texas and almost 2.8 million have been cast in Florida.

Some state with large increases in pre-election voting, recently change rules on such balloting.

Since 2018, Michigan, Vermont and Virginia have each expanded access to mail ballots.

Pre-election voting in Georgia and Texas is higher this year compared to 2018, the most recent midterm election cycle, but not to the same extent. In Florida, North Carolina and Ohio – which have some status as battleground states – pre-election voting is about the same as it was four years ago, CNN also reports.