21 Million Election Votes Cast So Far

At least 21 million Americans have already cast ballots for the 2016 general election so far, with Democrats outperforming Republicans in most areas, according to exil polls. This suggests the “October surprises” revolving around Hillary Clinton—specifically, the WikiLeaks releases from her campaign chairman’s hacked email account and FBI probe of her private server—are not having much of an affect in the battleground states. A spot of weakness for Clinton, though, was among black voters in North Carolina, who have not quite voted at the same level as they did during the 2012 race. Still, Democrats had a wide lead in that state, with 43 percent to the GOP’s 31 percent. According to The New York Times, most of the Democratic gains this year are owed to high turnout among Hispanic voters, who have in the past tended to wait until later to vote.