New York, Nov. 1, (tca/dpa/GNA) – Early voting soared Saturday toward an eye-popping 100 million ballots cast with a couple of days left before America officially heads to the polls on Election Day.
With mail-in votes pouring in from coast to coast and early in-person voting still in full swing, the nation blew past 90 million ballots cast and counting, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Election Project.
Texas overtook its total turnout from four years with nearly 10 million votes cast as early voting wrapped up.
About 8.3 million have already voted in Florida, with polling places open for early voting through Sunday in many of the biggest counties.
In New York, where 2020 is the first presidential election featuring early in-person voting, more than 3 million have voted so far, either by absentee or early.
But analysts are split on whether the flood of ballots is good news for President Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden.
Democrats dominated mail-in voting after Trump and the Republicans decried the practice.
But the GOP appears to be out-performing Democrats among people voting early in person.
Some states, like Florida, process early votes before Election Day and post the results as soon as polls close, a scenario that could result in Biden jumping out to an early lead.
Other states, notably Pennsylvania, won’t start tabulating the early votes until Election Day or even the day after, meaning Trump would likely appear to be in front before those votes are added to the total.
Polls show Biden comfortably ahead with about a 9 per cent lead nationwide heading into the final weekend of campaigning.
The former vice president also leads Trump in key swing states and it seeking to flip traditionally GOP states like Georgia and Texas.
GNA