Democrats Hold More Than 2-to-1 Lead in Early Ballots

With three weeks to go before Election Day, early voting and mail-in balloting is already breaking records.

So far, the votes cast appear to be benefiting former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democrats in a big way.

According to data made available by election authorities in 30 states, more than 9 million voters have returned their ballots — for either early voting in person, absentee ballots, or by mail.

In the nine states that provide party registration data, more than two million of the returned ballots have been identified by party — 2,143,425 came from Democrats and only 930,838 came from Republicans.

Party registration will have a huge impact in the race. According to the ABC/WashPost poll out this weekend, 96% of Democrats are backing Biden, while 90% of Republicans are voting for President Donald Trump.

Some experts suggest the significant advantage held by Democrats in early voting will dissipate on Election Day.

“It's to be expected,” Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told Newsmax. “Every poll says that Democrats want to vote by mail and Republicans want to vote in person on Election Day.”

Still, the gap between the two is a modern high.

A national Gallup poll recently found a record gap between early voters and those who plan to vote on Election Day.

Gallup says 62% of Democrats have said they plan to or have already voted early, compared to only 28% of Republicans. Normally, the gap between Democrats and Republicans voting early is about 2%.

These early statistics appear to suggest much greater success for the Democrats in turning out votes.

In 2016, roughly 57.2 million voters cast their ballots by mail or absentee. With 9 million having returned their ballots and three weeks to go before Nov. 3, all signs point to breaking the 2016 record for voting early, by mail, or using an absentee ballot.

Michael McDonald of the United States Elections Project recently predicted that 65% of eligible voters would participate in the 2020 elections. That would be a 100-year high in turnout, working out to be about 150 million voters.