Voters line up outside a polling station in Vienna, West Virginia.STEPHEN ZENNER / AFP
Early voting breaks new records each day as the November 3 presidential election date approaches.
With 12 days to go before the elections, more than 47 million Americans have already voted, reaching the total of the votes cast prior to the 2016 election date. The figure represents 34% of the votes from four years ago.
Either due to security measures to avoid a possible contagion in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic or due to enthusiasm, the figures indicate that electoral participation may be historic.
The postal service (USPS, for its acronym in English) reported this Thursday that since last September 4 it has received 100 million ballots, an increase of 162% compared to what happened four years ago.
Of the 50 States, 19 have databases that allow to know the party in which the voters are registered.
Among them are key territories for elections such as Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
So far, the anticipated turnout of registered Democrats far exceeds that of Republicans: 50.9% versus 26.6%.
However, in North Carolina, the margin between voters in both conglomerates who have already cast their vote has been cut in half since last Monday, according to data analysis company Catalist, standing at 43% -27%.
In Florida the difference has gone from 21 points to 13 points (46% -33%).
Due to the pandemic, most States have relaxed the requirements to vote by mail, without having to provide a justification for it.
By the end of September, absentee ballot requests had already exceeded 2016 levels in nearly every state.
In 10 territories, all voters are automatically voted by mail.
USPS Distribution Director Kristin Seaver said at a news conference Thursday that the postal service has given authority to "local post offices to work with their board of elections" and that it is they who implement additional measures to do in the face of the wave of ballots, rather than the USPS imposing them unilaterally on a national scale.
In North Carolina, a pendulum state, nearly 2.5 million Americans have already voted, which is more than half of all the votes cast in the state in 2016, and exceeds the number of votes Trump won in the territory .
The same is true in Texas, a Republican stronghold that this year has turned competitive.
There are already more than 5.8 million voters who have exercised their right, which is two thirds of the total of the previous elections.
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