More than 40 million early votes cast in US midterm elections

Washington:

More than 40 million Americans voted early ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, surpassing the number two years ago, the US Elections Project said Monday.

Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and numerous state and local posts.

Most of the 50 US states allow voters to vote early, either in person or by mail, a practice that became widespread during the 2020 presidential election, which was held at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 18.5 early votes were cast in person and 22.3 million by mail as of Monday, according to the US Elections Project, for a total of 40.8 million.

It said 39.1 million people voted for the same issue in the 2018 midterm elections.

Republican lawmakers have filed technical objections to early voting in several states where the election could be close.

In Pennsylvania, for example, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled that mail votes cannot be counted if there is no written date on the envelope — a decision that could potentially affect thousands of ballots.

In Wisconsin, absentee votes can be thrown out if the witness’s address — who the state says must have a sealed ballot envelope — is incomplete.

Former Republican President Donald Trump last week claimed “unverified” ballots had been sent to voters in the main state of Pennsylvania, a claim that has been debunked by state election officials.

After losing the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump also made false claims about voter fraud, which have been echoed by many members of his Republican Party.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)