USA map with Midwestern states highlighted.

Political Party Takeaways

• Iowa: Republican early ballots are up 40% and Democratic up 20%, and every watchlist county moved toward Republicans. Measured as a share of each party’s registered voters, both parties’ early voting rose about 34%, so it’s even. The faster Republican growth mostly reflects more registered Republicans and fewer Democrats than in 2022.

• Kansas: Democratic early ballots are up 42% and Republican up 17%. That’s an 8.4-point shift toward Democrats, using IKE Lab figures.ike-lab

Election Day section

It’s one table: place, number who voted today, time, comparison with 2022, and source. These counts cover only the few places that post them, so they’re kept out of the statewide numbers.

• Cuyahoga County, Ohio: 203,484 people had voted in person by 2:42 p.m. Eastern, 81% of 2022’s total Election Day vote. Overall county turnout was 50.4% at 5:40 p.m. Eastern, against 47% final in 2022.indystar+1

• Franklin County, Ohio: overall turnout was 51.8%, already past its 2022 final of 49%.indystar

• Detroit: 42,984 had voted in person by 1 p.m. Eastern.michiganpublic

• Douglas County, Kansas: 16,607 had voted at polling places by 3:30 p.m. Central. With early ballots, that’s 88% of the county’s 2022 final turnout.dgcoks

• Green Bay: 9,600 had voted at the polls by 2:30 p.m. Central.wisconsinwatch

• Madison: 16% of registered voters had voted at the polls as of 11 a.m. Central, but that can’t be compared with 2022 because the city changed how it counts (WisPolitics).

• Iowa and Minnesota: I found no same-day counts.

A few local election offices do post today’s turnout during the day:

• Douglas County, Kansas: 42,077 voters by 3:30 p.m. local time, early ballots included (county clerk).

• Grand Rapids, Michigan: an hourly precinct report.

• Ohio counties: live turnout widgets for Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton. The site blocks automated access, so these figures can only be collected from local news reports.

• Iowa: 42.1% of registered Democrats have voted early, up from 31.5% in 2022. For Republicans it’s 24.0%, up from 17.9%. Both rates grew by about 34%, so neither party is ahead statewide.

• Why the two Iowa measures disagree: Democratic registration fell by about 64,000 since October 2022 and Republican registration rose by about 29,000 (2026 and 2022 Iowa SOS counts). Much of the Republicans’ faster ballot growth reflects that.sos.iowa+1

MORE FROM IOWA AND KANSAS…

Iowa counties: Republicans’ rate grew more in Polk, Dallas and Johnson. Democrats’ grew more in Linn and Scott. Dubuque and Sioux are about even.

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• Kansas: 42.4% of Democrats and 24.8% of Republicans have voted early. No comparable 2022 rate is published, so Kansas only gets the ballot comparison.