More than half of American voters have voted early or plan to vote before Election Day, a new Gallup poll revealed Thursday.
Out of 933 registered voters surveyed between October 14 and October 27, 20 percent said they had already voted, and another 34 percent said they are planning to do so before November 5, bringing the total to 54 percent.
While the pollster found that the number of early voters is lower than what it was in 2020 — 64 percent — the rate is still higher compared to pre-coronavirus election years, before the popularity of voting by mail boomed.
Early voters tend to be Democrats, with 63 percent (including Democrat-leaning unaffiliated voters) having already voted or still planning to vote before Election Day, compared to just 47 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaners.
That 16-point gap is similar to Gallup’s poll for the 2020 election, where 74 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans voted early.
However, members of both parties voted early at about the same rate before the pandemic, Gallup noted.
Democrats and Democrat-leaners are also still significantly more likely to vote by absentee ballot (35 percent) than Republicans and Republican-leaners (17 percent).
More than 60 million Americans have already cast their ballots, by mail or in person, according to data compiled by the University of Florida Election Lab.
