More than 54 million Americans have already voted

At least 54.8 million mail and in-person early ballots had been cast nationwide as of NBC News' latest count, updated just after midnight ET Monday. NBC's tally combines daily totals from state election officials and the data firm TargetSmart.

That already tops the roughly 45.9 million early votes recorded before Election Day in the 2022 midterms, according to the University of Florida Election Lab, as cited by USA Today.

Some states don't report every day, so the true total is likely higher. Early ballots show who voted, not how they voted.

Update, Nov. 2: NBC's tracker now shows 54,834,584 early votes: 24 million by mail and 30.8 million in person. Party registration data in some states points to big shifts from 2024. In Kansas, early and mail ballots were 43% Republican and 42% Democratic as of Oct. 30, versus 52% to 34% at the same point in 2024, Decision Desk HQ reports. In Louisiana, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans among early voters about 42% to 39%, and Black voters make up 34.4% of early voters, above their 31.3% share of the electorate, The Advocate reports.