Over 30 million Americans cast early votes, 5 times 2016 pace-US elections project

Washington: More than 30 million Americans have already voted in this year’s presidential race, about five times the number of ballots cast at a comparable point in 2016, the US Elections Project said citing official state data.

“Voters have cast a total of 30,242,866 ballots in the reporting states,” the website said on Monday.

The site administrator, University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, said at a comparable point in 2016 about 5.9 million votes had been cast.

The report said the current turnout is 21.7% of the total votes counted in the 2016 US election, which was nearly 139 million.

In a post on October 4, the professor said he estimates that some 150 million people could vote in the 2020 general election, which would be a record tally and highest turnout rate since 1908.

McDonald captures official data directly from election systems of more than 30 US states that allow for early voting.