Early Voting Hits a Record Near 50 Million as Essex County Heads Into Its Final Early Day
More Americans have already voted in this midterm than in any midterm before it, according to Reuters and the University of Florida Election Lab — and Essex County voters can still vote early through Sunday.
The campaign for control of Congress entered its final weekend with early voting at a midterm record, according to Reuters reporting published Saturday. More than 49 million Americans had already cast ballots, in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida Election Lab figures cited by Reuters, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in the last midterms, in 2022.
Reuters reported that all 435 seats in the U.S. House and 35 races in the 100-member Senate are on Tuesday's ballot, and that the outcome will set the tone for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term. The same Reuters report covered the Justice Department's stepped-up intervention in the Alaska Senate race, which Newark Brick City News reported earlier Saturday.
In Essex County, the record national pace meets a local deadline. Registered county voters can cast an in-person early ballot at any of the county's 11 early-voting sites through Sunday, Nov. 1, including four sites in Newark, with Sunday hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the Essex County Clerk's 2026 voting guide. Voters who wait for Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, must use their assigned polling place, with polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Election experts cited in the wider coverage cautioned that a record early vote does not by itself predict the outcome, because party registration does not reveal which candidates voters supported and tens of millions more ballots are expected on Tuesday.
