More than half a million general election votes have been cast in the midterm elections.
Posted by The NPR Politics Podcast, Checked
- Sources
- 3 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
The NPR Politics PodcastSep 29, 2026
No source reports a national early-vote count for 2026-09-29 itself, but the claim's 500,000 threshold is far below what sources show being cast by late October, with about 21 million by Oct 23 (NPR) and roughly 54 million by Nov 2 (AP).
A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
The midterm elections are underway. More than half a million general election votes have already been cast, but leading up to voting, there's been some confusion and a fair bit of concern about things like mail-in voting and possible interference from the Trump administration. So let's get into it. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. …
The NPR Politics Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. NPR reported on 2026-10-23 that almost 21 million Americans had already cast midterm votes by mail or in person, per the UF Election Lab. Counts that large in late October imply the count was well above 500,000 about four weeks earlier.[3]
Supports. AP reported on 2026-11-02 that 54,430,161 advance ballots had been returned nationwide, and Reuters reported nearly 50 million early votes by Oct 31, showing steady growth through the early-voting period.[1][2]
Context. Early voting and mail voting were already underway by late September, with mail ballots out and some states offering early in-person voting. The NYT tracker shows state-level early and mail totals in the millions by late October, but none of these sources gives a figure for 2026-09-29.[4]
Context. The NBC tracker lists 54,834,584 votes dated 2026-10-13, which conflicts with the NPR figure of about 21 million ten days later. This is likely a snapshot or labeling problem and does not affect the conclusion that the total exceeded 500,000 in late September.[3][5]
Sources
5 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 3 tier 2
- 1How many Americans have already voted in the 2026 ...apnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2US campaign for control of Congress enters final weekendreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3Millions of Americans have already cast their votes for the ...npr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 4Tracking the Early Vote in the 2026 Midterm Electionsnytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
- 5Tracking the 2026 Early Vote: Midterm Elections - NBC Newsnbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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