(Newswire.net — October 7, 2020) — Four weeks before the November 3 presidential election, more than four million Americans have already voted, which is much more than the 75,000 voters who cast their ballots early in the same period in 2016, the American Election Project announced, which collects data on early voting.
The greater turnout was prompted by the decision of many states to allow earlier and larger-scale voting by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic, but also by the desire to make a decision on the political future of current President Donald Trump, said Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, who leads the project.
It remains to be seen if issues surrounding the economy and more specifically the stock market will have on the election. The big question is on the actions of Trump affecting the stock market.
“We’ve never seen this many people voting so far ahead of an election,” McDonald said. “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,” McDonald said, Reuters reports.
Due to the sharp increase in the number of voters who voted early, MacDonald predicts a record turnout of about 150 million, which is around 65% of Americans with the right to vote, and that would be the highest election turnout since 1908.
According to national polls, Biden has an advantage over Trump, but research in states that could be decisive in the elections indicates a much tougher race.
Data on early voting has so far been taken from 31 countries, McDonald said, adding that the number of voters who have already voted will continue to grow rapidly, given that early voting will begin in other states as well.
Only six states do not allow a certain level of early voting at polling stations. The percentage of Americans who voted at polling stations on Election Day was in steady decline before this year, according to the U.S. Electoral Support Commission.
The total number of ballots that were inserted earlier, or sent by mail, more than doubled, from almost 25 million in 2004 to 57 million in 2016, according to the commission’s data.
Trump has repeatedly criticized voting by mail and made accusations based on videos that surfaced on the Internet showing registered republican ballots being dumped. He expressed concern that voting by mail would lead to election irregularities, although experts say that this rarely happens.
There are indications that the president’s criticism has led to reduced interest from Republicans in postal voting. In seven states, which provide data on voter registration by party affiliation, Democrats have more than doubled the number of ballots delivered by mail, which is not the case when it comes to Republicans.