Election Day: Over 9 Million Americans Voted Early, Who Are the Majority Voters?

By Mary Anne R. Oct 12 2020, 01:26 AM EDT

More than nine million U.S. citizens have already voted ahead of the November 3 election.

As of Saturday, a total of 9,055,052 ballots have already been cast from the 30 states that made data available. The data also showed that registered Democrats had returned more than twice as many ballots than Republicans so far, as per the U.S. Election Project Data.

Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, who administers the U.S. Election Project Data, earlier projected that around 150 million people, or about 65 percent of the country's population, would vote in this year's election. This would represent the highest percentage in more than a century.

Data from the nine states that have given party registration showed that Democrats had returned over two million ballots nationally as of Saturday. The data also showed that approximately 891,000 Republicans had returned ballots.

A national Gallup poll, on the other hand, showed that a huge partisan gap has presented to those who plan to vote early to those who plan to wait until Election Day.

The survey found that 62 percent of Democratic registered voters plan to vote early or had indicated that they had already voted. Republicans stand with just 28 percent.

The 34-percentage-point gap has been record-setting since the figure has not been greater than two percent in the past four presidential elections, as reported by Forbes.

Mail-in Voting

The voting system has been tweaked due to the current coronavirus pandemic.

Mail-in voting has become a choice for voters, especially with the lockdown measures and precautionary measures imposed.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced mail-in voting, claiming that this could result in an insecure election. He even dubbed the upcoming election as "the most inaccurate and fraudulent Election in history."

Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said that one of the advantages of absentee ballots is it gives people a little bit of a picture as they are returned.

"If Republicans aren't getting accurate reads on that, they're not getting accurate reads on where they need to adjust more," Gorman was quoted.

Ohio's Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office said that the state received more than 158,000 requests in one week.

Meanwhile, Texas counties are currently blocked from installing multiple drop-off locations for absentee ballots. This is due to a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The TRO came after officials on Saturday has again aimed to limit drop-off locations that some voters use.

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an emergency stay on Sunday, with hopes to halt a federal judge's ruling that said counties are allowed to have multiple drop-off locations.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman's decision blocked Texas Governor Greg Abbott's recent order that sought to limit counties to just one for each location.

Meanwhile, involved federal agencies expect a secure election despite claims of insecurity.

CISA Director Chris Krebs said they have a lot of confidence that the ballots are secure as it's ever been. He added that they have been working on it for the three-and-a-half-years.

CISA and other concerned agencies are trying to avoid repeating the 2016 election event, when Russian intelligence hacked the Illinois voters database.