Pre-election voting surpasses half of all 2016 ballots cast with week left until Election Day

Pre-election voting for the November election has surpassed half of all ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election with a week left until Election Day. This image shows a voter dropping off an absentee ballot on March 17, 2020 in Dayton.

By Adam Levy, Ethan Cohen and Liz Stark, CNN

(CNN) -- Pre-election voting for the November election has surpassed half of all ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election with a week left until Election Day.

More than 68.5 million Americans have voted so far with seven days to go until November 3, according to a survey of election officials in all 50 states and Washington, DC, by CNN, Edison Research and Catalist.

In 2016, more than 136.5 million ballots were cast in the presidential election. The 68.5 million ballots cast so far represents about 50.2% of that 2016 total.

Pre-Election Day voting is skyrocketing nationwide amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and states are reporting record-breaking turnout as voters are energized to vote by mail or early in person before November 3.

Eighteen states have also crossed their halfway marks for total 2016 ballots cast, including seven of CNN's 16 most competitively ranked states: Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Colorado and Nevada.

A little more than half of the votes already cast this cycle come from those 16 key states, which will play a crucial role in determining who wins the presidency this year.

Detailed voter information comes from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations and is giving insights into who is voting before November.

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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