This number changes daily, and it is already out of date by the time you read it. As of October 26, 2026, more than 30.2 million early ballots had been cast nationally, per the University of Florida Election Lab's own dashboard. Several states are running well ahead of their 2022 pace, though a precise national comparison to 2022 couldn't be confirmed. Before citing a figure from this page, check a live tracker, such as the University of Florida Election Lab's early-vote dashboard, for today's actual count.
The count: 30,263,458 total early votes as of October 26, 2026 at 1:45pm Eastern Time, per the University of Florida Election Lab's own dashboard. Of that, 15,295,474 were cast in person and 14,967,984 were mail ballots returned, against 59,614,929 mail ballots requested nationally, meaning a large share of requested mail ballots had not yet been returned as of this count. This is up from 27.7 to 28 million reported by news outlets citing the same Election Lab data just a day earlier (October 25 to 26), consistent with a count that is climbing by the day.
The source: the University of Florida Election Lab compiles these figures from state and county election offices and updates its public dashboard throughout the day. Not every state reports the same categories on the same schedule, so the total reflects whichever states had reported as of the timestamp above.
Source: University of Florida Election Lab, national early-vote dashboard, as of October 26, 2026 at 1:45pm Eastern Time.
By raw ballots cast: Texas (about 4.17 million), California (about 3.15 million), Florida (about 2.78 million), Georgia (about 1.75 million), North Carolina (about 1.54 million), and Virginia (about 1.08 million).
By pace compared to 2022: North Carolina is running about 37 to 38% ahead of the same point in 2022, confirmed by two separate reports as of mid-October. Michigan is running slightly ahead of its 2022 pace too, not behind, per the Michigan Secretary of State's own mid-October release (about 2% higher in ballots returned, over 20% higher in mail requests). Virginia's early vote is also running well ahead of 2022, though reports differ on by how much depending on how the comparison is measured; one local report put it at roughly 85% more votes than the same point four years ago. We could not independently confirm comparable same-point figures for Texas or Pennsylvania as of this writing, so those two are left out here rather than guessed at.
Per the University of Florida Election Lab's reported breakdown for October 25, among ballots with known party affiliation, Democrats cast about 45% of early ballots, Republicans about 31%, and voters with no or minor-party affiliation about 24%. Not every state reports party registration, so this reflects only the states that do, and independents specifically can't be isolated from minor-party voters in this breakdown (see the question below on why that gap exists).
Not reliably. Early voters tend to be older and more habitually partisan than the voters who show up on Election Day itself, so a lead in early ballots cast doesn't translate directly into a lead in the final result. Election Day turnout, which is heavier among less frequent voters, still has to be counted.
Early vote totals don't break out independents cleanly. Roughly a third of states, including Texas, Michigan and Virginia, don't register voters by party at all, so there's no independent-specific count to draw from there. In the states that do track party registration, unaffiliated and independent voters are usually recorded as their own category rather than folded in with minor parties; nationally they make up close to a third of registered voters in those states. The real gap is in how running vote trackers report turnout, not in how states register voters: the daily early-vote totals cited above are typically split into just three buckets, Democratic, Republican, and "no or minor party affiliation," which combines independents with minor-party voters. That's why nobody has a precise national count of how many independents specifically have voted early this cycle. If you haven't voted yet, see USA.gov's official guide to early voting for how to check what's still open in your state.
Does a high early vote total mean turnout overall will be high?
It's a reasonable signal, since several states are running well ahead of their 2022 pace, but it isn't a guarantee. Some of this is voters who would have shown up on Election Day anyway choosing to vote early instead.
Is 30 million close to a complete count?
No. By comparison, 2022's early vote total was still growing in its final days before Election Day, and this cycle has tens of millions of requested mail ballots that had not yet been returned as of October 26, so the national total will keep climbing through Election Day.
Where can I check my own state's early vote numbers?
Your state or county election office publishes its own running totals; a national tracker aggregates many states' numbers but reporting schedules vary.
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