Nearly 500,000 votes cast before anyone saw Trump’s tape, debate

Among the 27 states that have made the data available, early votes or absentee ballots have been returned by at least 455,878 people, CNN reported Tuesday. The data collected from most of the states covered a time period up to Thursday, a day before the news broke of the 2005 video tape. Some states cover a period ending earlier and as many ballots may be in the mail but not yet delivered, it is possible that the total number of votes made before the revelations and the debate is likely higher.

About 190,000 early ballots from the total ballots cast are from nine critical states where the race between the two major party candidates is tightening — Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia and Colorado. Iowa, a Trump-friendly state, leads the pack with more than 77,000 votes cast, with Clinton-favoring Wisconsin just behind at 76,559.

A majority of voters have already cast their ballots in the competitive states of Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado, as well as populous states like Texas and California as early or absentee voting becomes increasingly popular nationwide. In Iowa, two times more Democrats have voted than Republicans but that number trails the 3 to 1 early advantage Democrats had in the 2012 when President Obama won the state. In North Carolina, from the approximately 22,000 voters who have already submitted their ballots this time around, Democrats only slightly lead Republicans but that is a better return than the same time period in the 2012 election.

Other battleground states counted have fewer than 10,000 votes cast or do not ask citizens to identify with a party when they register. Being a registered Democrat or Republican does not necessarily indicate that the voters supported their party’s nominee, but can reflect the party’s ground game to get out the vote.