US citizens are casting ballots in record numbers ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, another potential indication, analysts say, of voter dissatisfaction with Republicans and Donald Trump.
Voting was particularly high in states that feature tight Senate races that could determine which party controls the chamber.
In North Carolina, residents broke the record for most ballots cast during early voting for a midterm election, according to WRAL. And turnout was particularly strong among Democrats.
More than 1 million Democrats have already voted, compared with 679,000 Republicans.
In Texas 7.6 million citizens voted early, a record number for a midterm election. And in South Carolina, almost 1 million people voted early, also a record number for a midterm.
Same goes for Georgia, where more than 2.8 million people voted early, a 13% increase over the 2022 midterms, which saw a record number of early voters, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In Maine, Kansas, Michigan early voter turnout was also up more than 30% over the 2022 midterms, according to the Associated Press.
Across the United States, far more Democrats voted early than Republicans. Democrats cast 43% of the early votes, while Republicans only cast 31% and citizens with no party affiliation accounted for 25% of the voter turnout, according to the University of Florida’s election lab.
The greater participation among Democrats than Republicans could reflect a “referendum on Trump”, University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald told Axios.
Fifty-two percent of voters said they would support the Democratic congressional candidate in their district while only 44% of people said they would support the Republican, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll.
“Even for steadfast Republican voters, they look at the state of the economy, for example, and say that they’re not too enthusiastic about voting,” Bernard Fraga, a political science professor at Emory University, told Time. “Reading the trends, it’s clear that Democrats are enthusiastic and mobilized to a much greater degree than even the Republican voters.”
