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According to the Washington Post, early voting registered record numbers equivalent to 70 percent of total turnout in the last election four years ago.
The newspaper wondered if polling stations would be overcrowded on the big day of the White House race, while election officials who have faced large numbers of voters in recent weeks said they weren’t sure what to expect. Tuesday.
While at least 3 states (Texas, Hawaii and Montana) surpassed 2016 turnout during early voting this year, other states saw less turnout than they predicted and more movement on Election Day.
Pennsylvania had only reached about 40 percent of its 2016 levels on Monday, Ohio was at 60 percent and Michigan at 60 percent.
In Georgia, 3.9 million people had voted as of Monday night, equivalent to almost 4.2 million people who voted in 2016.
Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron said that in some districts in his county, downtown Atlanta, more than 80 percent of registered voters cast their ballots by mail or in person.
Barron added: “This turnout was surprising.” Despite this, Barron warned of overcrowding at polling stations on Tuesday, in light of current health conditions related to the emerging coronavirus.
Election officials said that “in many cases, voters asked for an absentee ballot but then changed their minds about voting by mail.”
In Harris County, Texas, about half of the 90,000 unsent ballots were delivered by voters who chose to cast their ballot in person.
In Florida, where 1.35 million ballots have yet to be returned by mail, Republican Councilor Rick Wilson estimated that voters who plan to cast their ballots in person account for about half that number.
But in some states, it is difficult for voters to change the way they vote. In South Carolina, where nearly 35,000 ballots were not returned by mail Monday afternoon, anyone who applied for and received a ballot will not be able to attend in person on Tuesday.
Instead, South Carolinians must mail their ballots by 7 p.m., or cast a provisional ballot if they testify that the ballots were not received by mail.
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