Over 400,000 Individuals Have Already Cast Their Votes In The 2024 Election, Presenting Us With The Current State Of Affairs.

According to a tracking website, over 400,000 individuals have already cast their votes early or returned their mail-in ballots for the upcoming November election as of September 29.

The data also reveals that a total of 45,020,537 mail ballots have been requested thus far.

The states currently reporting early or mail-in votes include Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Connecticut.

The majority of early or mail-in voters fall into the 40 years old and above age group. 37% of voters in states that report age were 65 years old or older, while 34.8% were aged between 41 and 64. The remaining percentage consists of individuals under 40, with only 8.5% of voters aged 18 to 25 having already cast their votes, and 19.7% of voters aged 26 to 40 participating in early voting.

Based on the available race data from three states, approximately 60.4% of early voters belong to the non-Hispanic white category. 5.7% are black, 2.8% are Hispanic, 2.9% are Asian, and 0.2% are Native American, according to the election website. Around 30% of voters are marked as other/multiple/unknown.

For states that provide gender information, 48.1% are male, 45% are female, and 6.9% are marked as unknown, indicating a diverse participation.

Referring to the issue of mailpieces being returned to the sender, Louis DeJoy, the Postmaster General, stated in a letter on September 13 that poor address quality is the most common reason. However, efforts are being made to promptly resolve any issue encountered.

The Georgia State Election Board recently passed a new rule requiring hand counting of the number of ballots, not the votes, at each polling place. This process must be carried out by three separate poll workers until all three counts are identical.

In Arizona, a similar modification to state law mandates the hand counting of ballot envelopes dropped off at polling centers on Election Day before the actual ballot tabulation.

A legal battle is currently ongoing in Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court regarding the counting of provisional ballots. This decision could determine if counties are obligated to count provisional ballots submitted by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected due to minor errors, such as failing to insert the ballot into an inner secrecy envelope. Currently, practices vary by county, and state law remains silent on this matter. Republicans argue that state law does not expressly allow the casting of a provisional ballot in such cases.