The US elections were scheduled for November 5, but have already started. On Monday, Texas and most counties in Florida, as well as Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota and South Carolina, began in-person early voting. Only a handful of states have not yet allowed in-person early voting, although they are among the most populous, such as New York and New Jersey. So far, almost 14 million citizens have cast their votes (7% of the census).
In total, just under a third of the country’s voters – just over 57 million, according to data compiled by New York Times — asked for postal ballots. This number would be a record if we did not take into account the anomaly of the 2020 election, which was defined by the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic and which indicates that this year’s turnout could be historic.
In Texas, however, the story is a bit different. Only 133,713 people requested an absentee ballot, which is less than 1% of voters. But this fact may say less about voter enthusiasm and more about border state restrictions on voting methods, especially for minorities – including measures banning mail-in voting and extended polling place hours, as well as campaigns to increase voter registration.
This time, as has been the case since 2016, when former President Donald Trump ushered in an era of fraud and distrust in American democracy, some officials in Texas are spreading the lie of an “illegal vote” in which millions of illegal immigrants will supposedly vote in these elections. On the strength of that claim, Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton have launched an anti-voting crusade in recent months. With the start of early voting on Monday, efforts to “suppress” the vote – a term often used to describe a set of practices that make it harder to vote, especially by minorities who tend to vote for the Democratic Party – are considered to be over. Everything indicates that Texas will continue to remain a Republican state, and the electoral tricks of which it is usually one of the main expressions continue to work.
Across the Gulf of Mexico, in Florida, nearly a quarter of the electorate requested early voting. Starting Monday, more than three million Floridians can elect their new president, as well as vote for their congressional representatives and several amendments to the state constitution, including one protecting abortion rights and legalizing marijuana in the state.
Despite warnings about alleged fraud issued earlier this year and distrust of mail-in voting that has grown since conspiracy theories began circulating during the last election, 7% of census takers had already cast a ballot by Monday. In practice, every vote counts, and in this closely contested election, both parties promoted voting in all its forms. In Pennsylvania, for example, Republicans spent more than $10 million to persuade citizens to vote by mail in November. But so far, the number of applications filed by registered Democrats in the state far outweighs the number of applications submitted by Republicans. Similarly, at Monday’s campaign event in North Carolina, Trump admitted he had seen no evidence of election interference, despite his numerous previous contradictory comments.
In fact, all swing states had above-average early turnout. Records were broken in Georgia and North Carolina: in the former, 1,425,000 people, representing 20% of voters, had already cast their ballots, while in the latter, over a million ballots were cast – 16% of voters – in just four days. Over 1,018,000 people voted in Michigan (13%), in Pennsylvania over 787,000 (10%), in Nevada over 187,000 (10%), in Arizona over 398,000 (9%) and in Wisconsin over 305,000 (9%). ) ).
This is despite the fact that Georgia and North Carolina were among the states that made changes to early voting rules in recent years. In Georgia, the Republican legislature and governor passed sweeping legislation that shortened the time to request an absentee ballot, imposed strict new ID requirements on those ballots, and significantly limited the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes. North Carolina added similar restrictions, mailing ballots to voters two weeks later this year after a court ordered the removal of Robert F. Kennedy’s name at the last minute. Hurricane Helene also created problems for voters in the state, causing significant damage and accessibility issues at 10 early voting centers.
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