More than half of all U.S. states have seen an increase in early voting this year compared to 2014, according to an analysis indicating that 2018 could set a record for votes cast in a nonpresidential election year.
The United States Elections Project, run out of the University of Florida, released updated data on Friday showing that total early votes have exceeded 29.8 million.
That’s up from the 27.2 million early votes cast in 2014, the last midterm election.
The additional 2.6 million votes cast reflects increases in 27 states plus the District of Columbia.
The number of early voters has more than doubled in New Jersey and Tennessee, and nearly doubled in Maryland.
Other states showing a healthy increase in early voting were Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
[Related: Texas sees substantial increase in Day 1 early voting for 2018 midterm elections]
D.C. also exceeded its early vote totals this year compared to 2014.
Election prognosticators have said for the last several weeks that they are seeing signs of a record-high voting numbers for the midterm.
“[W]hat we are seeing are a lot of signs that turnout is and will be up almost across the board, a modern midterm-election record,” said Charles Cook of the Cook Political Report. But Cook said it’s not yet clear who the turnout will benefit.
“There have been plenty of signs that women are unusually engaged this year,” he said. “The question is whether turnout surges among other increasingly passionate groups might cancel out some of that gender gap, to Republicans’ benefit.”
