Early Voting Nears 50 Million as the Campaign for Congress Enters Its Final Weekend
More than 49 million Americans had already cast ballots as the campaign for control of Congress reached its final weekend, Reuters reported, a record for a midterm election, with a federal fight over California ballots part of the closing days.
The campaign for control of the United States Congress entered its final weekend with early voting at a midterm record. More than 49 million Americans had already cast ballots, either in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab figures cited by Reuters, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in the last midterms, in 2022. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, along with 35 of the 100 Senate seats.
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 get on the ballot because he shares the Republican incumbent's name, and that the department also sought to block Alaska from certifying its Senate results if the incumbent loses a close race. The Alaska race is seen as crucial to Democratic hopes of taking the Senate, Reuters reported.
California is part of the same closing fight. Reuters reported that the administration sued California to try to prevent the counting of ballots cast by more than 20,000 registered voters it alleged could be noncitizens, and that a federal judge on Friday ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute California election officials who do not comply with its directives on alleged voting by noncitizens. In Los Angeles County, 646 vote centers are open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Monday, November 2, and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 3, and any county voter can vote at any center.
