With Donald Trump’s encouragement, Republicans are joining Democrats at the polls to cast their ballots early this year. The surge of GOP voters has helped break records for early voting in certain swing states such as Georgia and Nevada. At least 17 million early votes had been cast as of Tuesday. Campaigns typically try to get their voters to cast ballots early, either in person of by mail, so they can focus on turning out marginal voters on Election Day. But when Trump condemned early voting in 2020 and 2022, many Republicans stopped doing it. It’s unclear what the early turnout means for the presidential election because it only factors in a voter’s registration, not their actual vote.
