Harris holds big advantage among early voters, Trump with Election Day voters: poll

With three weeks to go until Election Day, Americans are already showing a strong partisan preference for how they vote, according to a new public opinion poll.

The NBC News poll found that 5% of registered voters said they have already cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election. Three percent of voters said they mailed their ballot while 2% voted early in person. Nearly half of survey respondents who have not yet voted, 47%, said they plan to vote early – 20% intend to vote by mail and 27% want to vote in person.

Of those early voters, Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holds a commanding 17 percentage point lead over her rival, former President Trump, 57% to 40%. Harris leads among those voting by mail 66% to 32%, with a narrower lead among those who intend to vote early in person, 51% to 47%.

But Trump, the Republican candidate, has a strong lead among those who intend to vote on Election Day, 58%-37%. 

The survey found that 52% of voters said they plan to cast their ballots early, while 44% plan to vote on Nov. 5. Another 3% said they aren’t sure how they will vote, while 1% said they won’t vote.

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Oct. 4-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

To date, 46 states and Washington, D.C. have begun some form of early voting. 

States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses. Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.

That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.

Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.

Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Kellianne Jones and Rémy Numa contributed to this report.