Early voting starts in all seven swing states.
Early voters head to the polls
As of yesterday, some form of early voting has commenced in all seven swing states. By Monday, 17 million people had already cast a vote, and there are initial indications that Republicans are showing up to the polls or returning absentee ballots with more gusto than in recent years.
In 2020, Donald Trump thoroughly demonized every method of voting that didn’t occur in person on Election Day, and he repeatedly discouraged his supporters from taking advantage of expanded access to mail-in and absentee voting, saying that those methods would cause “chaos and confusion.”
Not all states release early voting data broken down by partisanship, limiting the snapshot. But available data and experts who closely following ballot returns see an uptick for Republicans in a few key places. As of Monday evening, about 39.5 percent of the roughly 245,000 ballots submitted in Nevada came from Republicans, and 36.3 percent came from Democrats.
Sowing doubts: A handful of Trump’s allies are already questioning this year’s voting. Their efforts could help lay the groundwork to once again undermine the results should Trump lose.
