Contributed by Olga Vanucci.
- As of election day this year, 101 million people had voted early, either in person or by mail, across the US, compared to 47 million who did in 2016.
- Both NJ and PA only have mail voting, and not early voting at the polls.
- In NJ, as of election day this year, 3.6 million ballots of the 6 million distributed to all voters were returned, a 60% return rate.
- In Pennsylvania, as of election day this year, 2.5 million ballots of 3 million distributed to voters who requested them were returned, an 81% return rate.
- In both states mail ballots greatly exceeded the numbers of prior years, in NJ because this year mail ballots were sent to all voters (not just to those who requested them), and in PA because there was no mail voting in prior years (only absentee voting with a reason to vote absentee).
- In PA, Democrats requested 1.9 million mail ballots and returned 1.6 million as of election day, an 84% return rate, while Republicans requested 800,000 ballots and returned 600,000 of them, a 74% return rate. Unaffiliated voters requested 330,000 ballots and returned 260,000 of them, a 77% return rate.
- In PA, mail ballots could only be counted starting on election day itself.
Sources: http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/voter-turnout-data and https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html