Record early voting suggests turnout could reach 65 percent
More than 4 million Americans have voted already, more than 50 times more than the number that had cast ballots at this point in the 2016 election, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing data from the United States Elections Project.
"We've never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election," said Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, who administers the project. "People cast their ballots when they make up their minds, and we know that many people made up their minds long ago and already have a judgment about Trump."
The voting pace is setting up what could be record turnout in the showdown between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. McDonald said that with 4 million ballots already in four weeks before Election Day, turnout could reach 65 percent of eligible voters, the highest rate since 1908.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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