More than 1.2 million Americans have already cast their presidential ballots, before the first scheduled debate Tuesday between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in Cleveland. This is according to a CNN survey of election officials in 20 states that are making return data available.
In North Carolina and Wisconsin alone, more than 500,000 ballots have already been cast, which is roughly a quarter of the ballots requested. The high return rate suggests many voters have already made up their minds, and they’re heeding the advice from politicians and election officials who are urging people to return their ballots quickly due to concerns of delays in mail delivery.
These votes represent what will ultimately be a small fraction of the votes cast this year. Yet it also demonstrates an eagerness to vote, in a year when more Americans than ever will cast early ballots because of the pandemic.
Around the US, more than 30 million ballot requests have been made, predominantly for mail-in ballots, in the 36 states currently reporting. Another 43 million ballots have been or will soon be mailed to voters in the nine states, along with Washington, D.C. which are automatically mailing ballots to eligible voters.
For additional information visit our friends at CNN.
