Record 47.9 million Americans don vote early for US midterms
- Early voting for next week US midterm elections don pass di 2022 record, with 47.9 million ballots cast.
- Turnout don increase well well for battleground states wey get close Senate races, like Texas, North Carolina and Georgia.
- Democrats dey among plenty early voters, but analysts talk say dat no mean say dem go win.
More Americans don vote before Election Day for next week midterm elections pass any previous midterm, according to figures from di University of Florida Election Lab on Friday.
Di lab count 47,922,669 early ballots nationwide by midday, wey pass di 45.9 million wey dem cast before Election Day in 2022.
Di midterms go decide who go control di Senate, where several races dey hot well well, for di last two years of President Donald Trump presidency.
Where di numbers dey climb
Texas get more than six million early voters by Wednesday, official figures show, with in-person voting about 50 percent ahead of di same point in 2022.
North Carolina election board talk say early voting don increase nearly 37 percent compared to four years ago. South Carolina pass dia entire 2022 early total on Monday, with five more days of early voting to go.
For Kansas, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall dey fight to keep him seat, advance ballots bin about two-thirds higher than in 2022 last week, according to di secretary of state office.
Georgia break dia own midterm record for early in-person voting on Thursday. Women make up 56 percent of ballots cast by then, against 44 percent for men.
"Georgians continue to head to di polls in record numbers because dem trust di system," di state top elections official, Brad Raffensperger, talk on Thursday.
For states wey dey record party affiliation, registered Democrats account for about 44 percent of early voters, Republicans 31 percent and unaffiliated or minor-party voters 25 percent, di Election Lab find.
Michael McDonald, di University of Florida political scientist wey run di lab, don point to stronger participation by Black and Hispanic voters for states wey dey report racial data. Turnout don high well well for heavily Hispanic communities along di Texas-Mexico border.
Why e fit no predict di winner
Analysts dey warn say early numbers no dey forecast di outcome. A voter party registration no talk anything about which candidates dem back, and tens of millions more people dey expected to vote on Tuesday.
Republicans don dey turn out in larger numbers on Election Day itself for recent elections, wey fit reduce or wipe out di Democrats early lead.
And voting early no always mean say more people go vote overall. Some just dey cast dia ballots sooner than dem for do for past years.
