Early voting (in-person and mail-in voting) for the US midterm elections has surpassed 50 million voters.

According to the Associated Press and CNN, data analytics firm Catalyst tallied early voters across 47 states and Washington, D.C., at approximately 51 million as of this morning.

Among these, in 25 states that implement party registration systems for voters, the proportion of registered Democrats among early voters is currently about 14 percentage points higher than that of Republicans.

While this indicates higher early voting enthusiasm among Democrats, it is still premature to judge which party will gain an advantage in the final election results based solely on this phenomenon.

At the same point in 2022, the proportion of early voters who were registered Democrats was also about 11 percentage points higher than that of Republicans.

Republicans traditionally tend to prefer voting in person on Election Day rather than early voting.

According to CNN exit polls from the 2022 midterms, 60% of voters who identified as Republicans voted on Election Day, whereas only 42% of voters who identified as Democrats voted on Election Day.

CNN forecasted, "If Republicans are waiting to vote on Election Day, Tuesday night (midterm election day on November 3) could deliver results that fall short of expectations for Democrats."

However, The New York Times reported that as the hotter-than-usual early voting enthusiasm is concentrated in Senate battleground states that Republicans must defend, Republican candidates in those regions have resorted to personal attacks against Democratic candidates.

In the tightly contested state of Kansas, Republican Senator Roger Marshall claimed that Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton is engaged in child grooming.

In another battleground state, Texas, the camp of Republican candidate Ken Paxton has attacked Democratic candidate James Talarico, the central figure of a political surge, as a "weirdo" who secretly practices vegetarianism and is obsessed with transgender children.

In Michigan, slander continues against Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, labeling him as an "evil and violent jihadist."