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Almost 2 million people cast early votes for the 2020 elections.
The final early vote count was 1,976,996, after 233,575 people cast their vote on Friday.
That is far higher than the total number of early votes cast in previous elections. In the last elections, 1.2 million votes were cast in advance and in 2014 the total was 717,000 votes in advance.
Only 334,000 votes were cast in advance in 2011.
The final count represents 76% of the total number of votes cast in the 2017 elections and 57% of the registered population.
ALDEN WILLIAMS / Stuff
A voting booth.
The high number of early votes will mean that more votes will be counted before this election.
Early votes are being counted today, polling day, and the final count should be available shortly after the polls close at 7pm tonight.
The message of voting early and voting locally has been strongly pushed by the Election Commission, which has worked to open as many polling stations across the country as possible.
Last weekend, the commission had 1,350 polling places open on Saturday and 850 on Sunday.
Traditionally, most early votes are cast the day before Election Day, but in this election, the highest early voting day was last Saturday, when 253,111 votes were cast.
Election rules prevent the media from reporting on any political content that may influence votes on Election Day between midnight and 7pm when the polls close.
Political coverage can resume at 7 pm after polls close.
