Early Voting Nears 50 Million Nationwide as Leon County Enters the Final Weekend Before November 3

The campaign for control of Congress has reached its final weekend with the early vote already at a midterm record. More than 49 million Americans have cast ballots in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab figures reported by Reuters - up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in the last midterms, in 2022. On Tuesday, voters decide 35 Senate races and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and with them the shape of the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

The final weekend is not only a turnout story. Reuters reported that the Justice Department accelerated a criminal investigation in Alaska on Friday, following reports that aides to a Democratic Senate candidate recruited a retired schoolteacher to run under a name nearly identical to the Republican incumbent's; the department's top prosecutor in Alaska called the second candidate a sham candidate, while the candidate and the Democrat's campaign denied any coordination, and no crime has been specified. The administration has also sued roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking unredacted voter rolls, a pattern election officials have criticized - even as a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted September 30 to October 5 found 76 percent of voters confident their ballots will be counted accurately, with confidence about equally high among Republicans and Democrats.

In Leon County, the local version of the final weekend is simpler: time is running out on the flexible option. Early voting runs through Sunday, November 1, and a registered Leon County voter can vote at any of the county's 10 early voting sites. After Sunday, Election Day rules apply - on Tuesday, November 3, voters must use their assigned polling place, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections.