Early Voting Tops 50 Million, Surpassing 2022 Record, Three Days Before Midterm Elections

More than 50.5 million Americans had cast early ballots in the midterm elections as of Saturday morning, three days before Tuesday's vote, according to a University of Florida analysis. That is nearly 5 million more than the total early vote in 2022. The university's Election Lab counted 49.6 million as of Friday evening, including about 22.9 million mail ballots and 26.8 million in-person votes, above the 2022 record of 45.9 million. In states that track party registration, 10.7 million registered Democrats had voted, against 7.8 million registered Republicans. Only 27 states collect that data, and registration does not show how people voted. Texas had more than 7 million early votes; California and Florida had 5.1 million and 4.7 million as of Friday. Republicans are defending a 53-47 Senate majority, and Democrats are targeting seats in Texas, Alaska and Kansas. President Donald Trump rallied in Florida on Friday, and former President Bill Clinton spoke in Mississippi.

The Guardian US, the left-leaning outlet, leads with the 50-million milestone and the Democratic advantage among registered voters. It adds that polling shows widespread unhappiness with Trump's presidency and close races in normally Republican states, and it lays out the widened Senate map. Newsmax, on the right, headlines that early voting "explodes" and stresses that turnout is outpacing the last midterm, with sharp increases in states hosting competitive Senate races. Its excerpt gives no party split or Trump polling. Both agree on a surge compared with 2022 and on the importance of the Senate contests. They differ in emphasis: partisan advantage and presidential approval on the left, raw turnout and battleground states on the right. Newsweek adds the mail versus in-person breakdown and caveats about party data, while AP folds the surge into a roundup with rallies, an Alaska probe and a Michigan Democratic feud.