More than 2 million Americans have already cast a ballot in the 2022 election, outpacing early voting turnout at the same point in 2018, according to data analyzed by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, ABC News reports. “It’s clear that we are above the 2018 midterm at the same point in time in states where we have comparable data to look at,” said McDonald, who runs UF’s US Elections Project data center, adding he thinks turnout will be more or less on par with 2018 percentage-wise and the increase this year is due to early voting becoming more widely available after 2020 due to changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We do know that interest is running high for the election. We can see the sorts of indicators that would suggest that we’re in for a high-turnout election, much like we had in 2018. And 2018, was the highest midterm turnout rate since 1914. So, it was a fairly exceptional election, I mean 2020 was also exceptional in that it had the highest turnout for presidential elections since 1900.”