Mother Jones: “Trump’s actions to undermine fair elections in order to hold onto power — sabotaging the Post Office, undermining mail voting, encouraging his ‘army’ of poll watchers to challenge Democrats at the polls, refusing to commit to accepting the election results if he loses or to a peaceful transfer of power—may be part of the reason Democrats are casting their ballots early in historic numbers. ‘We’ve got to vote early, in person if we can,’ Michelle Obama urged in her Democratic National Committee speech. ‘We’ve got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow up to make sure they’re received. And then make sure our friends and families do the same.'”
“Fifty-one million Americans have already voted, exceeding the total number of early votes cast in 2016, and Democrats have returned nearly twice as many ballots as Republicans in the 19 states that release voting data by party, according to Michael McDonald of the University of Florida. A quarter of ballots have been cast by people who didn’t vote in 2016, and these voters lean Democratic by 16 points, according to Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm. ‘The surge of new voters is benefitting Democrats by fairly large margins,’ Bonier says.”