More than 70M have already voted in U.S., election monitor says

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- More than 70 million Americans have already voted in the 2020 presidential election, with record turnout in Texas and Florida, an independent monitor showed Wednesday.

According to the U.S. Elections Project, 71 million mail and early in-person votes have already been cast with a week left before Election Day. The vote tracking site is maintained by University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald.

The figure has eclipsed the total number of early votes, 58 million, before the 2016 election -- and is more than half of about 136 million total ballots cast four years ago.

Early voting in the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden has reached record levels partly due to the COVID-19 concerns about crowded polling places.

Biden and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris have also maintained a steady push for Americans to vote early. High turnout may also be due to voters' belief that this year's is perhaps the most important election of their lifetimes.

In Texas, where Democrats seem to be making up significant ground this year, nearly 8 million early votes have been cast -- about 87% of its entire turnout in 2016.

In the battleground state of Florida, more than 6.4 million have voted -- 46% of the state's registered voters, the Elections Project said.