Overview
- More than roughly 690,000 votes have been cast so far across at least 29 states and Democrats make up a larger share of ballot requests than they did at this point in 2024 in states such as Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maine and North Carolina.
- The available totals are compiled from state election boards and aggregated by CNN and the Associated Press with demographic and party‑breakout analysis from the private firm Catalist.
- The data are dominated by mail ballots, which skew older and have favored Democrats in recent cycles, so these early returns show who has voted but not how those ballots were cast.
- Virginia provides a clear local example: localities that voted strongly for Democrats in 2024 are pacing ahead of last cycle while Trump‑leaning areas are lagging, showing that rollout timing and local politics shape early signals.
- What to watch next is whether in‑person early voting grows and narrows the gap, because early mail trends can mislead about final results and will not resolve actual vote choices until states report results on Election Day.