Roughly 82 million voted early in the 2024 election – here are some takeaways

Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday — with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Political analyst Rich Rubino joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss the latest on the final day in the race to the White House.
WASHINGTON – As Election Day finally arrives in the U.S., millions of people have already cast their ballots – including record numbers of early voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could help decide the winner.
As of Monday, tracking by the Associated Press of advance voting nationwide showed that roughly 82 million ballots were already cast. Data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab showed a similar tally of early votes. 
In the 2020 presidential election amid the pandemic, roughly 101.4 million votes were cast early, Election Lab data showed. That year, many states enacted emergency measures to temporarily expand vote-by-mail options to protect voters from the spread of COVID-19.
FILE – Early voting at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder / County Clerk building in Norwalk, California, on Nov. 4, 2024. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, over 4 million voters cast ballots early this year. That’s about 55% of their active voting populace, according to Georgia’s Election Data Hub.
The turnout was so robust that a top official in the Secretary of State’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.
Despite long lines in some places and a few hiccups that are common to all elections, early in-person and mail voting proceeded without any major problems, according to the Associated Press.
That included the parts of western North Carolina that were hit by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a big effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.
By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots, according to the ASsociated Press, citing the state’s election board. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”
Republican voters in 2024 were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.
According to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, about 15.4 million Democrats (37.8%) voted early this year, compared to roughly 14.7 million Republicans (35.8%), and 10.8 million non-registered voters (26.4%).
That data only includes 26 states that have party registration, the Election Lab noted. 
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Only nine states share voting age data, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab – but that includes swing states Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Among the states that do, the highest percentage of early voters – 39.4% – were between the ages of 41 to 65. 
Some 34.5% of early voters were over age 65, 17.5% of early voters were between the ages of 26 and 40, and 8.6% of them were the youngest age group: 18-25. 
Reporting states with gender data include Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Some 54% of early voters identify as female, 43.8% as male, and another 2.2% of early voters were listed as “unknown,” according to the Election Lab’s data.
The reporting U.S. states with race and Hispanic ethnicity data are Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
The highest turnout (65.2%) of early voters were listed as non-Hispanic White, 22.2% were non-Hispanic Black, 2.7% were Hispanic, 1.9% were Asian American, 0.5% were Native American, and another 8.5% were listed as “Other/Multiple/Unknown,” according to the Election Lab data.
For those who opted to wait until Election Day to cast their ballot, polling operations vary by state – with some opening as early as 6 a.m. local time and others not until 8 a.m. 
Voters should check their state and county websites before heading out.
Here are the opening times for the swing states: 
Closing time for polls also varies by state. Check your state and county website before heading out to vote. 
Here are closing times for the swing states: 
This story was written based on information published by the Associated Press and the University of Florida’s Election Lab (https://election.lab.ufl.edu/) on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, 2024. It was reported from Cincinnati, and the Associated Press and Megan Ziegler contributed.