--- title: How Many Americans Have Voted Early in 2024 Election So Far description: In 2024, both Republican and Democratic leaders have been encouraging early voting. canonical: https://time.com/7097237/how-many-americans-have-voted-early-in-the-presidential-election/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-10-24T17:27:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T14:31:42.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Many Americans Have Voted Early in the Election—So Far og:description: In 2024, both Republican and Democratic leaders have been encouraging early voting. og:url: https://time.com/7097237/how-many-americans-have-voted-early-in-the-presidential-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9f1b8fd793eba0/698a8a4809208f662e4224d0/GettyImages-2180057772.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Connecticut Offers First-Ever Early Voting Opportunity For Presidential Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Many Americans Have Voted Early in the Election—So Far twitter:description: In 2024, both Republican and Democratic leaders have been encouraging early voting. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a9f1b8fd793eba0/698a8a4809208f662e4224d0/GettyImages-2180057772.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Many Americans Have Voted Early in the Presidential Election—So Far > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c64f34b5-c8f9-4095-afe1-60edf245a5d6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Factory in New Jersey Making 5,000 Harris-Walz Camo Hats Per Day [Watch (HLS stream): Factory in New Jersey Making 5,000 Harris-Walz Camo Hats Per Day](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bdDAm5hG.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2024-10-24. Workers at a 70,0000 square-foot factory in Newark, New Jersey, is producing 5,000 Harris Walz hats a day for the campaign._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 19, 2026 2:31 PM UTCPublished: Oct 24, 2024 5:27 PM UTC  Voters line up to cast their ballots at the Stamford Government Center on the first day of early voting on Oct. 21, 2024, in Stamford, Connecticut. Voters line up to cast their ballots at the Stamford Government Center on the first day of early voting on Oct. 21, 2024, in Stamford, Connecticut. John Moore—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 19, 2026 2:31 PM UTCPublished: Oct 24, 2024 5:27 PM UTC Election Day is Tuesday, but early voting has already been underway in many states. All but three U.S. states (47 in total) and the District of Columbia offer early voting options. In swing states especially, early voting has been a priority for both parties. Early voting can be done either through in-person voting, or through mail-in or absentee ballots. [Eight states and Washington D.C.](https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections) allow for elections to be conducted entirely by mail. The government’s website hosts [a search engine ](https://www.usa.gov/state-election-office)which allows you to look up your local election office and research what early voting options are available to you. More than 4 million voters have cast early votes in the key state of Georgia, which flipped blue in 2020 and helped President Joe Biden beat the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. Despite the devastation of Hurricane Helene, key swing state North Carolina [set a new record for first day voting](https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article294166754.html), marking over 350,000 votes, as did [South Carolina](https://scvotes.gov/south-carolinians-break-record-on-opening-day-of-early-voting-period/), which saw more than 125,000 votes cast. Though not all states report the ages of early voters, where that data is available, we can see that so far, it’s the over 65 age group that has cast the most early votes. ### More From TIME The percentage of Republicans casting early votes is higher than in 2020, perhaps a result of leaders in the Republican party focusing more on the practice than in previous elections. Trump discouraged voters from [utilizing mail-in voting](https://time.com/5887438/trump-mail-in-voting/) and early voting in 2020\. In fact, his attacks on mail-in voting and false allegations of [widespread voter fraud](https://time.com/5883990/voter-intimidation-trump-sheriff/) capitalized on fear and uncertainty about holding a presidential election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, [over 100 million people voted early](https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html) in 2020.  With "Vote Early" displayed on a screen behind, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Santander Arena on Oct. 9, 2024, in Reading, Pa. Alex Brandon—AP However, he has flipped the script during this election. Though he still said this year that he had [“mixed feelings” ](https://radio.foxnews.com/2024/10/23/donald-trump-ill-be-voting-early/)about early voting, the Trump campaign has spent September and October pushing for early and mail-in ballots from Republicans. In fact, Trump said on [Fox News Radio](https://radio.foxnews.com/2024/10/23/donald-trump-ill-be-voting-early/) on Oct. 23 that he plans to vote early himself. [Biden’s win in 2020](https://time.com/5907674/joe-biden-wins-2020-election/) was supported by much higher rates of early voting and mail-in voting than Republican voters. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has also been encouraging supporters to vote early in this election. **Read More**: [_Harris Urges Detroit to ‘Break Some Records’ as Early Vote Begins in Critical Michigan_](https://time.com/7095205/kamala-harris-lizzo-detroit/) On Oct.19 in Detroit, as early voting began in the city, Harris hosted a rally with musician Lizzo, and encouraged voters to [“break records,”](https://time.com/7095205/kamala-harris-lizzo-detroit/) emphasizing that early votes are the best way to block Trump’s return to the Oval Office. Rachael Cobb, associate professor of political science and legal studies at Suffolk University in Boston, Mass., tells TIME that these early voting numbers are undoubtedly higher than in previous years, but it’s “hard” to compare to the 2020 general election, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. “More states have enabled early voting in recent years, and it’s not a new reform but it’s taken hold more so since 2010,” Cobb says. “And, we’ve only had a handful of presidential elections since then.”  Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally encouraging early voting on Oct. 19, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. Elijah Nouvelage—Getty Images Still, Cobb points out that there are real advantages to early voting practices. For campaigns, they get more and more voters out to the polls, and have more data on which population’s vote they must focus on whilst leading up to election day. For voters, in-person early voting allows for additional support from poll workers, especially for those that may need translations or extra help. “For voters, they can see that everything is handled with their own eyes,” Cobb says. She also emphasizes how convenient early voting is, often allowing people to vote at centers close to their work or home, without too much impact to their busy schedules. ## How many votes have been cast so far in the 2024 presidential election? According to the [University of Florida’s Election Lab](https://election.lab.ufl.edu/early-vote/2024-early-voting/), which tracks early votes, over 78 million votes have been cast thus far. ## Transcript So we're producing about 5,000 baseball hats a day for the Harris Walls campaign. They are mostly going to fulfillment houses that are filling orders that are placed with the campaign, but we get a lot of orders for events and for affinity groups, for packs, and for other parts of the campaign that might be satisfying high dollar amount donors or small donors or volunteers. We were the manufacturer for the Biden campaign, and they were really selling no hats at all. They were still selling merchandise leftover from the last campaign. And when Harris became the nominee, we saw an incredible surge in sales. That surge increased after Walls was named Vice President on the ticket. The hat that has done the best by far is a hat that's done with Hunters camouflage. Think that there's a lot of demand for this hat. It's a style that's very popular with young people. It's also popular with a lot of hunters in the Midwest. We made hats for the Trump campaign back in 2015, and we still do work for Republicans who order from us, whether it's make America great again hats or other campaigns, we will do Union made America baseball hats for either party. I think that baseball caps have definitely become the political statement wearable. A lot of that is because people are just used to taking selfies, and that's the only item that shows up in a selfie. Another is that a lot of the photography that's done at events, which is what these hats are designed for, is done by drone to take pictures of large crowds. 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