How Many People Voted Early in 2026? 59 Million Ballots Before Election Day, by State

The University of Florida (UF) Election Lab tracker counted 59,014,258 early votes as of 8:21 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, split between 31,900,671 cast in person and 27,113,587 mail ballots returned. The tracker covers 48 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.); Alabama and New Hampshire have no early vote data in its file. The figures below are a preliminary snapshot, not final turnout, and they do not show how anyone voted.

Election Day is today. For early voting end dates in the states we covered, see our story on which states had early voting.

How many people have voted early in 2026?

The UF Election Lab, run by Dr. Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida, gathers early vote counts from state and local election offices. Its page notes that some states do not provide daily updates and links to the original data where possible.

Measure	Count	Share of early votes
Total early votes	59,014,258	100%
In person	31,900,671	54.1%
Mail ballots returned	27,113,587	45.9%
Mail ballots requested	61,343,169	not applicable

Source: University of Florida Election Lab, 2026 Early Voting tracker, last updated 8:21 a.m. ET, Nov. 3, 2026. Shares are our calculation.

The tracker’s 49 jurisdictions cast 109,979,856 total ballots in the 2022 general election, by the tracker’s 2022 turnout column. The 59,014,258 early votes so far equal 53.7% of that figure, our calculation. That is a comparison with all 2022 ballots, not with 2022 early votes: we do not give a national 2022 early vote total because published figures for it differ.

How fast did the early vote count grow?

News reports of the same tracker show the climb over the final days.

Date and time	Early votes	Reported by
Sunday, Nov. 1, 6:56 a.m. ET	53.14 million	Al Jazeera, citing the UF analysis
Monday, Nov. 2, afternoon	More than 57 million	ABC7 New York, citing the UF Election Lab
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:21 a.m. ET	59,014,258	UF Election Lab tracker

Between Sunday morning and Tuesday morning the count rose by about 5.9 million, our calculation from the two reported figures. Each figure comes from a different update of the tracker, so treat the intervals as rough.

Early votes by state, 2026

The table lists all 48 states and D.C. in the tracker, ranked by total early votes. The last column is our calculation: early votes so far as a share of all ballots cast in that state in the 2022 general election, from the tracker’s 2022 turnout column. It is not a turnout rate for 2026.

State	Early votes	In person	Mail returned	Share of 2022 total ballots	Data date
Texas	7,736,594	7,466,245	270,349	94.9%	11/2
California	6,662,914	298,511	6,364,403	59.8%	11/2
Florida	5,464,802	3,467,810	1,996,992	70.1%	11/2
Georgia	2,834,893	2,705,120	129,773	71.5%	11/3
North Carolina	2,828,288	2,728,268	100,020	74.6%	11/3
Michigan	2,313,206	684,492	1,628,714	51.4%	11/2
New York	2,110,908	1,965,043	145,865	35.4%	11/2
Washington	1,992,533	0	1,992,533	65.0%	11/2
Colorado	1,859,900	38,976	1,820,924	73.2%	11/2
Ohio	1,728,899	1,103,252	625,647	41.2%	11/2
Arizona	1,648,197	0	1,648,197	63.6%	11/2
Virginia	1,644,509	1,313,198	331,311	54.4%	11/3
Illinois	1,579,728	904,143	675,585	38.1%	11/2
Oregon	1,481,943	0	1,481,943	74.2%	11/2
Tennessee	1,280,642	1,280,642	0	72.9%	10/30
New Jersey	1,240,049	642,644	597,405	46.9%	11/3
Massachusetts	1,161,295	347,336	813,959	46.2%	11/2
South Carolina	1,084,542	1,043,810	40,732	63.1%	11/2
Pennsylvania	1,062,313	0	1,062,313	19.6%	11/2
Maryland	993,206	604,396	388,810	48.9%	11/2
Minnesota	886,427	619,847	266,580	35.1%	11/2
Indiana	884,186	0	884,186	47.0%	11/3
Wisconsin	777,739	463,491	314,248	29.1%	11/2
Nevada	753,056	308,025	445,031	73.6%	11/2
Utah	583,623	13,689	569,934	53.8%	11/3
Arkansas	550,338	540,941	9,397	60.2%	11/2
Louisiana	535,957	448,585	87,372	38.0%	11/3
Connecticut	505,945	455,169	50,776	39.0%	11/2
Kansas	470,170	392,184	77,986	46.6%	11/2
Iowa	464,008	314,683	149,325	37.7%	11/2
New Mexico	456,726	385,114	71,612	63.9%	11/2
Kentucky	438,602	390,736	47,866	29.2%	11/2
Montana	331,826	0	331,826	70.9%	11/3
Maine	300,491	0	300,491	44.1%	11/2
Idaho	263,250	144,149	119,101	44.2%	11/2
Missouri	260,656	226,882	33,774	11.3%	10/29
Hawaii	249,140	5,472	243,668	58.8%	11/2
Nebraska	237,135	47,443	189,692	34.7%	11/2
Oklahoma	229,159	186,488	42,671	19.9%	11/2
Vermont	150,202	0	150,202	51.4%	11/2
Delaware	148,738	0	148,738	45.7%	11/2
Rhode Island	138,314	112,046	26,268	38.3%	11/2
Mississippi	116,453	0	116,453	16.4%	11/2
West Virginia	114,391	109,902	4,489	23.1%	10/29
District of Columbia	111,150	27,118	84,032	54.0%	11/2
North Dakota	101,160	50,489	50,671	41.7%	11/2
Alaska	99,424	64,332	35,092	37.2%	11/2
South Dakota	81,367	0	81,367	22.9%	11/2
Wyoming	65,264	0	65,264	32.9%	11/2

Source: University of Florida Election Lab, 2026 Early Voting tracker, read at 8:25 a.m. ET, Nov. 3, 2026; shares are our calculation. The data date is the day of the state’s latest report (month and day, 2026).

Notes on reading the table:

• Missouri and West Virginia data are dated Oct. 29, and Tennessee’s Oct. 30 (in person only), so those totals are behind the rest.
• Kentucky and Maryland reports are one day behind.
• Michigan’s in-person figure is estimated by the lab from application data.
• A zero in the in-person column means the state votes mainly by mail or reports a single combined figure. Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii and Vermont vote mostly by mail, and Arizona, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Montana report one figure.
• Alabama and New Hampshire are not in the tracker.

Which states have the highest early vote compared with 2022?

Ranked by the share of 2022 total ballots rather than by raw count, smaller states rise. Texas leads, followed by North Carolina and Oregon.

Rank	State	Early votes, 2026	Share of 2022 total ballots
1	Texas	7,736,594	94.9%
2	North Carolina	2,828,288	74.6%
3	Oregon	1,481,943	74.2%
4	Nevada	753,056	73.6%
5	Colorado	1,859,900	73.2%
6	Tennessee	1,280,642	72.9%
7	Georgia	2,834,893	71.5%
8	Montana	331,826	70.9%
9	Florida	5,464,802	70.1%
10	Washington	1,992,533	65.0%

Source: University of Florida Election Lab, 2026 Early Voting tracker, Nov. 3, 2026; shares are our calculation. Tennessee’s data is dated Oct. 30.

A high share does not mean a state’s final turnout will beat 2022. Votes cast on Election Day come on top of the early vote.

What do 34.2 million mail ballots not yet returned mean?

The tracker lists 61,343,169 mail ballots requested and 27,113,587 returned. The difference, 34,229,582, is our calculation: ballots requested that were not yet recorded as returned at 8:21 a.m. ET.

That figure is not a count of ballots that will go uncounted. Many may still be returned or dropped off today. Deadlines differ by state; see our guide to mail ballot deadlines by state for where a ballot must arrive and where a Nov. 3 postmark counts.

What does an official state count look like?

State offices publish their own figures, and they can differ from the tracker because they are cut at a different time. The Colorado Secretary of State reported that as of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, 1,599,988 ballots had been returned statewide, against 1,339,399 at the same point in 2022. That is about 19.5% more, our calculation. The UF tracker’s Colorado line, 1,859,900 as of Nov. 2, is a later snapshot.

What the early vote count does not show

The numbers count ballots, not choices. They do not show who is ahead, and ballots are not counted until Election Day under state law, although the tracker notes that officials may prepare ballots in advance. The count is also not final turnout: in-person voting today and mail ballots still arriving add to it. For when results start to come in, see when we will know the 2026 election results. To plan the rest of the month, use the November 2026 printable calendar or the 2026 printable yearly calendar.

Print the early vote by state list

A one-page list of the 20 states with the most early votes, with each state’s share of its 2022 total ballots, is in the downloads below.