More than 50 million Americans have cast ballots as voter turnout expected to break century-old record

Early vote totals have surpassed early votes cast during 2016 election with 11 days left to Election Day

With more than a week left to Election Day, nearly 52 million Americans have already cast their ballots, surpassing the total early vote turnout from 2016.

More than 25 million Americans voted returned mail-in ballots and voted in-person within the first week of early voting by Saturday, a figure that more than doubled within the week.

If the pace holds, the turnout for 2020 elections could break a century-old turnout record from 1908, when 65 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

The turnout follows concerns among voters and voting rights advocates amid the coronavirus pandemic, with elections officials reporting long lines at early voting centres and increased demands for mail-in ballots to avoid crowded polls on Election Day.

With 11 days left to Election Day on 3 November, more than half of the early-vote total has come from battleground states that could determine whether Donald Trump is re-elected or his Democratic challenger Joe Biden declares victory over the incumbent.

University of Florida professor Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project found that more than 35.7 million people have cast mail-in ballots and more than 15.7 million people have voted in person during the early-voting period, as of 23 October.

In 19 states that report voter party registration with totals, nearly 12 million ballots came from Democrats, nearly twice as much as the 6.3 million ballots that came from Republicans. More than 5 million voters did not claim party affiliation or are registered with a minor party.

Nationally, voters have already cast roughly 38 per cent of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election.

In Texas, voter turnout already has reached 70 per cent of the total votes cast in 2016.

Total voter turnout has surpassed 50 per cent or higher in Georgia, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina and Vermont. 

In 2016, approximately 55.5 per cent of the eligible voter population participated, casting roughly 137 million ballots.