WASHINGTON —
Early voting has ended in many states, with more wrapping up Monday ahead of the 2026 midterm election.
Voters will decide control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, along with state and local races.
More than 54 million voters have cast ballots early, either in person or by mail, according to the latest data from the University of Florida Election Lab. The University of Florida Election Lab gathers data directly from state and regional sources and has tracked early voting since 2008.
Early voting this year has nearly reached the number of votes cast early in the last midterm elections in 2022, with 23 states that have exceeded early voting turnout so far.
Early voting data is not election results, and therefore it’s not yet known which candidate will win their races. Some states do report voters’ party affiliation, which the data includes.
The Get the Facts Data Team is tracking early voting and analyzing trends in the data. All figures are as of Monday morning. Here’s what to know.
States with high early voting turnout
With the election just one day away, 54.5 million people have cast early ballots. That’s almost 100% of early voting turnout in the 2022 midterm election, and almost half of total votes.
In Texas, early ballots cast in person or by mail have surpassed the number of early votes cast in 2022, making up more than 138%. Texas has a close, competitive Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton.
Texas is one of 10 states that require voters to provide an excuse to vote by mail. About 7.7 million early ballots have been cast in person.
There are 23 states, including Texas, in which early voting this year has surpassed that of the last midterm election in 2022.
Other states like Connecticut, Illinois and Louisiana have also exceeded their 2022 early voting turnout.
Georgia is another state seeing high overall turnout so far, surpassing 2022 early voting with more than 2.8 million ballots already cast. That’s about 71% of the total turnout the state saw in the 2022 midterm elections, including in-person election day voting. Georgia has competitive races for the Senate and governor.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is defending his seat against Republican challenger Mike Collins. The governor’s race is between former Atlanta Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican nominee Rick Jackson.
Tennessee and North Carolina also have high turnout, with early voting accounting for 73% and 74% of the 2022 midterm turnout, respectively. Both states have passed 2022 early voting turnout already, too.
How is early voting turnout in competitive states?
Republican nominee and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Democratic nominee and former state health director Amy Acton are competing for Ohio’s open governor seat.
In Ohio, more than 1.6 million voters have cast ballots, more than the 1.2 million early votes cast in the 2022 midterms.
The Cook Political Report has called both the race for governor and the U.S. Senate seat in the state as competitive.
About 1.8 million voters in Michigan have voted ahead of Election Day. The state allows voters to vote early in person or by mail. That’s about 99% of 2022 early voting turnout.
Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are competing for the state’s open Senate seat.
