Half of voters plan to cast their ballots early — with a stark partisan divide

Americans are eager to vote earlier than before the pandemic, but a deep partisan divide remains over early voting. The latest national NBC News poll shows.

Less than a month before Election Day, 5% of registered voters said they had already voted (3% by mail and 2% in person), according to a new poll that polled people Oct. 4-8. .

Another 47% said they plan to vote early (20% by mail and 27% in person).

Overall, 52% of voters said they plan to vote early this year, and 44% plan to vote in person on Election Day. That’s roughly in line with an NBC News poll from a similar point in the 2022 midterm elections that found 49% of voters plan to vote early and 47% plan to vote on Election Day.

Meanwhile, 3% said they were not sure which method they would use to vote, and 1% said they would not vote.

But the latest poll results represent a setback from the 2020 election, which took place amid the ravages of the Covid pandemic, with 59% of respondents by early October saying they planned to vote early and 37% planning to wait until election day. . (By the end of October, the share of those who said they would vote early had risen to 68%.)

The new numbers are significantly higher than the 41% who said they planned to vote early in early November 2016, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, although fewer states offered early voting at the comparable time.