Early In-Person Voting Opens in Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey

Updated 17:45 UTC

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani cast his ballot on Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art polling site on the Upper East Side, the New York Post reported. Mamdani arrived at about 10 a.m. carrying donuts for poll workers, and said he voted for Gov. Kathy Hochul on the Working Families Party line. "In a city where time is one of the most precious resources, voting early, you can do so in five minutes. I voted early; I was only called a communist once," he said, referring to a heckler who shouted at him as he arrived, according to the Post. Early voting in New York runs for nine days, and Saturday was the first day.

Early in-person voting opened on Saturday in Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey, adding four states to the list of places where voters can cast a ballot in person before the November 3 midterm elections. The elections will decide control of Congress, along with governorships, state legislatures and thousands of local offices.

Nine days in New York and New Jersey

In New Jersey, designated early voting sites opened at 10 a.m. on Saturday and will stay open through Sunday, November 1. Hours run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, and no appointment is needed. Voters can use any designated early voting site in their home county, which may be different from the polling place assigned to them for Election Day. Voters who were issued a mail-in ballot but decide to vote in person will cast a provisional ballot, which is counted once officials confirm the voter is eligible.

New York opened the same nine day window on Saturday. October 24 is also the voter registration deadline in New York for the general election, and the last day for early mail and absentee ballot applications to be received. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani cast his ballot on Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an early voting site on the Upper East Side, and brought donuts for poll workers. Ballots returned by mail in New York must be postmarked no later than November 3 and received by November 10.

Florida and Michigan join in

Michigan clerks are required to offer early in-person voting from October 24 through November 1, a window that includes two Saturdays and two Sundays. In Florida, early in-person voting that expanded across the state on Saturday runs through October 31. Early voting had already begun in many other states, some of them weeks ago.

More than 23 million ballots already cast

The University of Florida Election Lab reported at midday on Friday that more than 23 million ballots had already been cast nationwide, more than 12 million of them absentee ballots and more than 10 million cast in person. An Associated Press analysis found early voting up 74 percent from 2022 in Texas, one of the most closely watched Senate races this year, where nearly a million ballots had been cast by the same point in the cycle compared with about 550,000 four years earlier.

The Postal Service also began its election measures on Saturday. The service told staff in two memos that extraordinary measures for handling election mail will run through November 3, and it restated its policy that every return ballot mailed by a voter should receive a postmark. In the final week, postal workers will hand postmark ballots delivered straight to election offices or postal hubs.

What is at stake in the four states

The best known races in the four states show why both parties are pushing supporters to vote early. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul is seeking reelection against Republican Bruce Blakeman. In New Jersey, Senator Cory Booker is seeking another term against Republican Justin Murphy. Michigan has an open Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers that forecasters rate among the closest in the country. In Florida, appointed Senator Ashley Moody is defending her seat against Democrat Angie Nixon, and voters are also choosing a governor.