Want to know what's going on with early voting?

Election Day returns will be all over the news, but here's a great way to follow along with early voting statistics across the country.

U.S. Elections Project is a platform that publishes cumulative election data from all of the states, reporting it out in simple graphics and tables. It was founded by Dr. Michael McDonald, a Professor of Political Science, at the University of Florida. Dr. McDonald has been sharing his work with the public since 2000 and is widely known as a subject matter expert on the topic of election statistics.

The data is acquired from official state and federal sources, then published on the website regularly.

WI and NY(!) #earlyvote updates posted. I am now getting a report on in-person activity statewide from the @NYSBOE. Still not word on absentee voting. Nationally, at least 60.5 million people have voted in the 2020 general election https://t.co/s8K2xFDeSA

— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) October 26, 2020

To date, as of the time of publication, over 66 million people have already voted in the upcoming election, both in person and by early mail-in ballots. On the website, you can see various subcategories of information, including votes by individual states, as well as the national statistics.

There is some analysis of the numbers, including comparisons to voter turnout in 2016. Dr. McDonald also has a section for blog postings where he goes into deeper explanations of his data extrapolation.

#earlyvote morning update 10/27

At least 66 million people have voted in the 2020 general election 🥳https://t.co/s8K2xFDeSA pic.twitter.com/xsSzguFu9G

— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) October 27, 2020

For more information, or to follow along with your state's early voting numbers, visit the official website for the U.S. Elections Project here. You can also follow along on the project's Twitter feed for regular updates leading to the final returns.

Are you following along with the election returns or are you just going to wait for the final tallies? Let us know in the comments!