Simon Ateba covers the White House, the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions for Today News Africa in Washington D.C. Simon can be reached on simonateba@todaynewsafrica.com
More than 100 million Americans voted before election day with Texas and Hawaii exceeding all the votes counted there in 2016, according to data from the United States Election Project at the University of Florida.
Several other states are approaching the total vote count of 2016 with election day still hours away.
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Nearly 64 million votes have been cast by mail and over 36 million Americans have voted in person. There are still more than 29 million outstanding ballots, the data show.
In the 2016 general elections, roughly 47 million Americans voted before election day.
And while about 138 million Americans voted in total in 2016, it is projected that this time there would be a total of 150 million ballots cast overall.
The over 100 million ballots cast as of Tuesday morning represent nearly 70 percent of all the votes counted in 2016.
Nearly 10 million Texans have already voted in the 2020 election, surpassing the 8.97 million ballots cast in the state in 2016.
The ballots cast so far in Texas represent more than 108 percent of all the ballots cast there in the 2016 general election.
Election Day is still 24 hours away and the record-breaking numbers are a sign that Americans are passionate about the 2020 presidential race.
It’s not clear who would benefit from the surge, but pollsters have already moved Texas, the once red state from ‘leaning Republican’ to ‘toss up’.
This effectively means Texas is now considered a battleground state that can go to either Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump.
With 38 electoral votes, Texas has not elected a Democrat since 1976, and a win for Joe Biden there would be a humiliating knockout against Donald Trump, effectively ending the presidential race.
Harris county has seen the highest enthusiasm so far, home to Houston, Texas’ biggest city.
In the battleground state of Florida, nearly 91 percent of all ballots cast in 2016 are already in as well.
At least 8.7 million people have voted in Florida, a must win state for Donald Trump if he wants to remain a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest, Washington DC, where the White House is located in the nation’s capital.
In the battleground state of North Carolina, more than 4.5 million people have already voted, representing more than 95 percent of all votes counted in 2016.
In Georgia, which has become a battleground state, nearly 4 million votes have been cast there. This represents about 94 percent of all the votes cast there in the 2016 general election.
So far, Joe Biden appears to be winning while Donald Trump appears to be losing.
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