Republican voters' early voting turnout surges, encouraged by Trump

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Reporter : Zeng Ziheng / Editor : Li Muen / https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/24/10/23/n14355982.htm / Image : On 12 October 2024, US Republican presidential candidate Trump took the stage at a campaign rally in Coachella, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Encouraged by Trump, Republicans across the United States once again actively participated in early voting and went to polling stations to vote in person before Election Day. Early voting rates in swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina hit record highs.

As of Tuesday (22 October 2024), the number of early voters in the United States has reached nearly 19 million.

Trump changed his strategy this year from opposing early in-person voting and mail-in voting in 2020 and encouraged supporters to vote early. "I tell everybody to vote early," Trump said last week on a podcast hosted by conservative commentator Dan Bongino. Early turnout among Republican voters has been impressive in the past.

Trump hopes the rush to vote early will solve the "mechanical technical issues" that led to his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections. In addition, having voters cast their ballots before Election Day allows campaigns to focus on mobilizing undecided voters to vote in the final stages of the election.

James Blair, political director of the Trump campaign, said that Republican voters who were originally reluctant to vote exceeded expectations in early voting, even exceeding the turnout of Democratic voters in some areas. "The starting point is that we are in a good situation," he noted.

In Nevada, Democrats have relied on steady early voting over the past few decades to counter Republican voting tactics on Election Day, AP research found. However, data as of Tuesday showed Republicans outnumbered Democrats in early voting by 6,000 in Nevada.

Research believes that Democrats' early voting rate increased significantly in 2020, mainly due to the epidemic. Therefore, as the epidemic eased, Democratic voters became less active in voting early.

Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida, noted that based on his observations, Democrats are still increasing early voting. It's just less of a disadvantage for Republicans, and it's unclear whether the change is simply a realignment of how voters cast their ballots or whether support among Republican voters is growing.

But one thing is clear: Early turnout from both parties helped break records.

Despite the devastation of Hurricane Helene, both North Carolina and Georgia reported record high voter turnout on the first day of early in-person voting, a wave of enthusiasm that carried over to the presidential election in non-swing states such as South Carolina, which the state reported record-breaking early voting turnout on Monday.

While political parties can gain leads in early voting, they may see those leads disappear in an instant on Election Day because participation in early voting is relatively low compared to same-day voting. The current early voting volume is only 11% of the total votes cast in the 2020 presidential election.

Harris' campaign team has yet to respond.