More than 2 million people in Massachusetts who can vote have already done so, accounting for nearly 44% of all registered voters, the secretary of the commonwealth's office said Thursday.
That's equal to 62.4% of the total ballots cast in 2016, according to the officials. There are five days left in the election.
Adding the 2,108,337 ballots returned with the number of people who have applied to vote by mail as of Thursday and you have 51% of all Massachusetts voters already engaged in the process, according to the officials.
The 1 millionth ballot was cast in Massachusetts on Oct. 20, which was the fourth day of early voting.
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The deadline to apply to vote early has passed, according to the Massachusetts early voting website. Anyone mailing their ballot must have it postmarked by Tuesday and have it delivered to their election office by Friday at 5 p.m. They can also return the ballot in person by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
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Massachusetts expanded early voting this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, including sending applications for mail-in ballots to all eligible residents.
"The advantage of early in-person over election-day voting is, of course, you can do it on your own time, and there'll be less, or fewer, people, less of a crowd," Secretary of State William Galvin said this month.
Some have predicted that 80% of registered voters in the commonwealth will cast ballots on or before Nov. 3. That would be a record, beating the 74.5% turnout in 2016, when 3.4 million people voted.
