Republicans casting more early, mail-in votes than in previous elections

(NewsNation) — More than 21 million Americans have cast early and mail-in ballots, with less than two weeks until the general election.

Georgia and North Carolina are among the nation’s swing states breaking early voting records.

Although Democrats are often more likely to take part in early voting, more Republicans are casting early ballots this year than in past elections. Analysts point to a change of tune from former President Donald Trump, who previously bashed early voting but now is telling his supporters to cast their votes as soon as possible.

Early voting by the numbers

So far, more than 21 million voters have cast early ballots. Democrats cast just more than 800,000 in-person ballots, while Republicans cast about 1 million, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Both parties submitted more early mail-in ballots, however.

Democrats sent in nearly 4 million, while Republicans cast about 2.5 million.

Too soon to tell

Political animals are trying to glean what they can from early voting, but it’s not an exact science.

60 million Americans had cast their votes at this stage of the previous presidential election cycle.

While Republicans had an early in-person lead with about 2.3 million ballots, Democrats retained their mail-in advantage, with nearly 11 million votes.

It’s important to note, however, that current early voting data only shows voters’ party affiliation — not how they voted. That means those numbers don’t reflect registered Republicans who may have voted for Vice President Kamala Harris or registered Democrats who might have voted for Trump.

When will we know how they voted?

Results you see the night of the election and the next morning are always unofficial. It often takes several days or weeks to finalize election results and certify a winner.

Election officials need to process mail ballots before they can count them — an undertaking that varies by state.

For example, some states begin processing mail-in votes before Election Day, while others are allowed to process them on the day of the election before polls close.

Once those ballots are processed, how and when they’re counted and reflected in live, unofficial results vary greatly.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. don’t allow counting to begin until the polls close, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Twenty-three states allow counting to begin on Election Day, but before the polls close, and 12 states allow both processing and counting to begin before Election Day.

As those ballots are processed, counted and reported in each jurisdiction, the unofficial results that pour in on the night of the election may experience spikes in favor of one candidate and then the other. Those waves depend, in part, on factors like when voters in a given region cast their ballots and what state laws dictate in terms of when election officials can begin processing and counting absentee ballots.

NewsNation digital reporter Katie Smith contributed to this report.