More Americans are planning to vote early in this year’s midterm elections than in previous years, according to a new poll.
Some 41 percent of registered voters said they plan to vote before Election Day or have already cast a ballot, the Gallup survey found.
Early voting is underway in multiple states ahead of Election Day on November 8, with Republicans seeking to retake control of Congress. But Democrats were more likely to vote early than Republicans, according to the survey, conducted between October 3 and 20.
More than half of Democrats (54 percent) said they would vote early, compared to 32 percent of Republicans. About 38 percent of Independents said they would vote early.
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The number of voters who said they planned to vote early in the November midterms does not reach the level measured in 2020 when 64 percent of registered voters said they would vote early compared to the 32 percent who planned to vote on Election Day.
It is unclear how much concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic boosted early voting in 2020 “because the practice has historically been more common in presidential than in midterm election years,” according to Gallup.
Past midterm election years saw little difference in when Republicans and Democrats planned to vote, Gallup said. But partisan differences about early voting emerged in 2020 after then-President Donald Trump began railing against mail-in voting, claiming it would lead to widespread fraud.
The new poll found that those planning on casting an absentee ballot is down compared to 2020.
Of those who said they planned to vote early this year, a majority (63 percent) said they would vote in person at their local polling place while 25 percent plan to vote by mail. Five percent are unsure how they will vote.
Gallup’s surveys show the number of voters planning to vote early has risen significantly since 2010, the first time Gallup asked the question in a midterm election year. Only 26 percent of voters had said they would vote early in 2010, while 60 percent said they would vote on Election Day.
“Although early voting has been less common in midterm elections than in presidential elections, more voters will cast their ballots before Election Day this year than in prior midterm election years,” Gallup wrote in an analysis of the findings.
“Partisan differences in early voting that were first seen in 2020 persist today, as do party differences in absentee versus in-person voting. Those differences make it possible that some contests will be subject to a ‘red mirage,’ as occurred in the 2020 election.
“If large numbers of mail ballots are cast, which take more time to count and may tilt significantly toward Democratic candidates, it is possible some Republican candidates leading the vote count on election night may end up losing once all ballots are counted.”
Newsweek reached out to Gallup for further comment.
