WASHINGTON — With one week to go before Election Day, politicians are making their final pitches to voters. But many voters have already cast their ballots through early voting or mail-in ballots.
In order to Verify the vote totals, our team reached out to election officials from DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Here are the totals:
DC:
The latest information on early and mail-in ballots was provided by a spokesperson for the DC Board of Elections. He told us that there have been a total of 52,390 ballots returned already. The latest data is as follows:
- Early Vote Center Votes: 1,503
- Mail Ballot Drop Boxes: 17,621
- USPS Ballots: 33,266
- Total Ballots Returned: 52,390
The DC BOE spokesperson also provided data for 2018, which was as follows:
- Early Votes: 52,512
- Mail Ballots: 12,599
- Total Votes: 65,111
The spokesperson for DC BOE pointed out that in 2018, all mail-in ballots were absentee since they did not mail ballots to all voters in that year.
VIRGINIA:
The absentee ballots are tracked in Virginia on this DOE website. As of the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2022, there have been 653,407 absentee ballots returned. The totals are as follows:
- Designated Representative: 7
- Drop Off: 19,730
- In-Person: 438,816
- Mail: 192,064
- Mail (Non-USPS): 2,790
According to a DOE database, the 2022 amount has already surpassed the last midterm election, in 2018, when there were 337,315 absentee votes. Here are some of the other recent absentee vote totals:
- 2008: 506,672 Absentee Votes
- 2010: 106,888 Absentee Votes
- 2012: 447,907 Absentee Votes
- 2014: 123,221 Absentee Votes
- 2016: 566,948 Absentee Votes
- 2018: 337,315 Absentee Votes
- 2020: 2,687,304 Absentee Votes
Midterm Elections tend to have lower voter turnout, which is why it's best to compare 2022 totals to the election cycles of 2018, 2014, 2010, etc.
MARYLAND:
As of Oct. 31, 2022, at 6 p.m., there were 290,168 mail-in ballots returned in the state of Maryland, according to this state-run website. The partisan breakdown for these mail-in ballots was as follows:
- Democrats: 202,659 ballots returned
- Republicans: 50,211 ballots returned
- Other: 37,298 ballots returned
Overall the state has sent out 622,303 mail-in ballots in Maryland.
The state also tracks early voting turnout, which can be found here. As of Oct. 31, 2022, there have been 185,122 early votes cast. The early vote counts are as follows:
- Day 1: 43,723
- Day 2: 45,358
- Day 3: 26,513
- Day 4: 25,755
- Day 5: 43,773
In 2018, which was the last midterm election, there were 120,240 absentee ballots cast, including 74,537 from Democrats and 26,132 from Republicans. Through eight days of early voting, there were 661,276 early votes.