Tuesday, Nov. 5, is Election Day – but if Americans vote like they did in the last two election cycles, most of them will have already cast a ballot before the big day.

Early voting had been expected to start Friday with North Carolina mailing out absentee ballots to eligible voters, though the state’s elections board indicated it would not send out ballots right away amid a challenge from former candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Still, multiple battleground states are scheduled to send out ballots to at least some voters later in the month, making September and October less a countdown to Election Day, and more the beginning of ‘election season.’

States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses. 

In some states, almost every voter casts a ballot by mail.

Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.

That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.

Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.

Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption. 

The difference between ‘early in-person’ and ‘mail’ or ‘absentee’ voting.

There are a few ways to vote before Election Day.

The first is , where a voter casts a regular ballot in-person at a voting center before Election Day.

The second is , where the process and eligibility varies by state.

Eight states vote mostly by mail, including California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. Registered voters receive ballots and send them back.

Most states allow any registered voter to request a mail ballot and send it back. This is also called mail voting, or sometimes absentee voting. Depending on the state, voters can return their ballot by mail, at a drop box, and/or at an office or facility that accepts mail ballots.

In 14 states, voters must have an excuse to vote by mail, ranging from illness, age, work hours or if a voter is out of their home county on Election Day.

States process and tabulate ballots at different times. Some states don’t begin counting ballots until election night, which delays the release of results.

Voting expected to begin in multiple battleground states in September

This list of early voting deadlines is for guidance only. In some areas, early voting may begin before the dates listed. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes, and deadlines, go to Vote.gov and your state’s elections website.

The first voters to be sent absentee ballots were expected to be in North Carolina, which had planned to begin mailing out ballots for eligible voters on Sept. 6, though the state elections board did not indicate on Friday when ballots would go out.

Six more battleground states are expected to begin early voting this same month, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.

September deadlines

Subject to change. In-person early voting in bold.

TBD

North Carolina – Absentee ballots sent to voters

Sept. 16

Pennsylvania – Mail-in ballots sent to voters

Sept. 17

Georgia – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas

Sept. 19

Wisconsin – Absentee ballots sent

Sept. 20

Virginia – In-person early voting beginsMinnesota, South Dakota – In-person absentee voting beginsIdaho, Kentucky, West Virginia – Absentee ballots sentArkansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas

Sept. 21

Maryland, New Jersey – Mail-in ballots sentIndiana, New Mexico – Absentee ballots sentAlabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington – Absentee ballots sent to military & overseas

Sept. 23

Mississippi – In-person absentee voting begins & absentee ballots sentOregon – Absentee ballots sentVermont – Mail-in ballots sent

Sept. 26

Illinois – In-person early voting begins & mail-in ballots sentMichigan – Absentee ballots sentFlorida – Mail-in ballots sentNorth Dakota – Absentee & mail-in ballots sentNevada – Mail-in ballots sent to voters outside the state

Sept. 30

Nebraska – Mail-in ballots sent

October deadlines

Oct. 4

Connecticut – Absentee ballots sent

Oct. 6

Maine – In-person absentee voting begins & mail ballots sent

Oct. 7

California – In-person absentee voting begins & mail ballots sentNebraska – In-person early voting begins Georgia – Absentee ballots sentMassachusetts – Mail-in ballots sentMontana – In-person absentee voting begins

Oct. 8

California – Ballot drop-offs openNew Mexico, Ohio – In-person absentee voting beginsIndiana – In-person early voting beginsWyoming – In-person absentee voting begins & absentee ballots sent

Oct. 9

Arizona – In-person early voting begins & mail ballots sent

Oct. 11

Colorado – Mail-in ballots sentArkansas, Alaska – Absentee ballots sent

Oct. 15

Georgia – In-person early voting beginsUtah – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 16

Rhode Island, Kansas, Tennessee – In-person early voting beginsIowa – In-person absentee voting beginsOregon, Nevada – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 17

North Carolina – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 18

Louisiana – In-person early voting beginsWashington – Mail-in ballots sentHawaii – Mail-in ballots sent

Oct. 19

Nevada, Massachusetts – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 21

Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas – In-person early voting begins Colorado – Ballot drop-offs open

Oct. 22

Hawaii, Utah – In-person early voting begins Missouri, Wisconsin – In-person absentee voting begins

Oct. 23

West Virginia – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 24

Maryland – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 25

Delaware – In-person early voting begins

Oct. 26

Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, New York – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 30

Oklahoma – In-person early voting begins 

Oct. 31

Kentucky – In-person absentee voting begins

Vice President Kamala Harris is running behind President Biden’s 2020 numbers among several demographic groups, a gap that could loom large in what increasingly appears to be a razor’s-edge election.

‘Harris is significantly underperforming Biden, according to most polls, with Black voters, Hispanic voters, working class voters, and young voters,’ Democratic strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital.

The comments come as an analysis of polling data released by the Wall Street Journal this week showed Harris still struggling with key demographics that have been critical to Democratic success in national elections. Although the vice president has made up ground on Biden’s numbers when he decided to drop out of the race, she has still failed to meet the president’s 2020 performance.

One such group Harris is struggling with is Black voters, with the vice president running 10 points behind the numbers put up by Biden in 2020. She is also behind Biden’s mark with Latino voters (6 points), voters under the age of 30 (12 points), male voters (4 points) and female voters (2 points.)

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to make inroads with minority communities that have previously been difficult for Republicans to appeal to. The former President now has the support of 20% of black men, the Wall Street Journal analysis found, and only trails Harris by one point among Latino men, 48% to 47%. 

The figures could offer a glimpse into why Biden has begun joining Harris on the trial, with the president and vice president campaigning together for the first time over Labor Day weekend. Biden has also seen some positive momentum when it comes to his approval rating, which one USA Today/Suffolk poll showed has jumped 13 points in just a few months.

If Harris fails to match Biden’s standing among some minority demographics, the Wall Street Journal analysis suggests she may look to pick off the support of white voters, a group with whom Trump has traditionally performed well. But the analysis found Harris outperforming Biden’s 2020 marks among white voters with and without college degrees in seven critical swing states.

‘Harris is overperforming Biden with college-educated elites and suburban women,’ Epstein said. ‘This suggests not just that Trump is likely ahead by a small margin, as Nate Silver has pointed out, but it also suggests longer-term realignment with the Democratic Party becoming a party of elites, and the Republican Party becoming a populist working-class party.’ 

However, picking off enough white voters could put Harris over the top in a close race.

‘A small gain among white voters can offset a bigger loss among those from minority groups, because white voters account for 70% or more of those who participate in elections,’ the analysis notes.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Iran is closer to becoming a nuclear-armed power than much of the world realizes, according to a nonpartisan research group’s new report. 

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) claims Iran could have a nuclear bomb before the presidential election, and suggests U.S. troops need to be deployed to the region immediately to counter such an outcome. 

The FDD published a strategic plan, ‘Deterring Iran’s Dash to a Nuclear Bomb,’ with two dozen specific recommendations they say the Biden administration needs to quickly change the tides on Iran’s nuclear capabilities. 

‘Unless the Biden-Harris administration takes robust steps now to deter and hinder those advances, Iran could complete a crude nuclear bomb before the next U.S. president is inaugurated,’ the plan’s co-author, Orde Kittrie, said.

The report demanded the Biden administration declassify all intelligence assessments related to Iran’s nuclear program to build up domestic and international pressure to deter Iran. 

It also called for putting U.S. boots on the ground, ‘at least on a temporary basis,’ to send a message that the U.S. is prepared to stop an Iranian nuclear breakout if necessary. 

The group warned that while most U.S. officials are monitoring Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium to 90%, the regime is taking other, covert steps toward a nuclear weapon, like taking measures toward building a nuclear explosive device that would make quick work of putting a bomb together. 

‘It’s undertaking other advances which would make an eventual sprint to cross that line faster and much harder to stop,’ Kittrie said.  

On July 19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that it would take ‘one to two weeks’ to produce sufficient weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear weapon. 

‘I think Americans should be very, very worried, because Iran is a vicious, bloodthirsty regime, and here they are on the verge of acquiring the world’s most powerful weapon.’ 

It may be impossible for western nations to detect when Iran is in its final stages of building a nuclear bomb as much of the activity occurs in hidden, underground facilities, according to the report.

In addition to putting boots on the ground, the FDD is calling for President Biden to increase joint military exercises with partners in the region, lift the U.S. hold on 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs to Israel and remove any roadblocks to provide Israel with planes and munitions. 

The group also called on the top of the Republican and Democratic tickets, as well as Biden, to explicitly state their commitment to the use of force to prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon.

‘Biden’s strongest statement on this issue was actually weaker than Obama’s strongest statement on the same topic,’ said Kittrie. 

‘The administration keeps saying, well, a military option is on the table. But implying that a military option is on the table is not the same as stating that the option will, if necessary, be used in addition, the administration talks in terms of commitment that Iran never acquired a nuclear weapon. That leaves unclear the parameters of the undesirable result.’

The FDD said the U.S. needs to ‘massively increase’ the use of sanctions and work with nations like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to trigger sanctions within the United Nations.

LAS VEGAS Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, the chair of the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee, is making his pitch to top dollar donors and influential conservative activists in order to remedy the cash disparity between GOP campaigns and those of Democrats.

‘We need your help to close the fundraising gap,’ the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chair emphasized as he addressed the crowd at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting. ‘We have the right candidates. Let’s get them the resources they need to win.’

Minutes earlier, in an interview with Fox News Digital, Daines pointed to the GOP’s fundraising gap as compared to the Democrats as Republicans aim to win back the Senate majority and acknowledged, ‘it’s a concern of mine.’

‘There are winnable races right now that we may not be able to bring across the finish line because of lack of resources. We are literally two months away from the most consequential election of my lifetime,’ Daines emphasized. ‘That’s why we’re working very, very hard to make sure we’re ringing that alarm bell to get to donors.’

Democrats have outraised and outspent their Republican counterparts in the 2024 battle for the Senate majority, and looking forward, they have dished out more money for ad reservations for the final two months leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5.

Senate Democrats and outside groups supporting them have made significantly larger post-Labor Day ad reservations in four of the seven key Senate battlegrounds, per AdImpact. In Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona each, Democratic ad reservation spending is at least double that of their respective Republican opponents, presenting a stark obstacle for GOP candidates, some of whom already face name recognition issues and the hurdle of taking on an incumbent. 

Overall, Democrats have an advantage over their Republican Senate foes with nearly $348 million in planned spending in pivotal races across the country ahead of election day, compared to Republicans’ over $255 million. 

The relatively small GOP expenditures in Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona appear to be a result of massive prioritized pro-Republican Senate buys in Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Republicans are managing to outspend Democrats in these states, but their opponents have still boasted similarly large planned spending. In Ohio, while Republicans had $81.9 million reserved, Democratic future spending wasn’t far behind at $78.3 million, according to AdImpact. 

Fueling the financial disparity, the surge in Democratic Party enthusiasm and fundraising in the month and a half since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket in the White House race against former President Donald Trump.

‘You just saw in the last 48 hours Kamala Harris announce she’s directing $25 million of her presidential campaign dollars down-ballot including $10 million for Senate Democrats,’ Daines spotlighted. ‘There’s not many things Kamala Harris does well but one thing she does well is raise money. So this does have us concerned.’

However, Daines said there is a silver lining when it comes to Harris replacing the 81-year-old Biden in the White House race.

‘What it does is it helps us take the age issue off the table because that was one of the reasons that Biden did so poorly. It was more about his age than anything else,’ Daines said. ‘This now gets us laser focused on policy. This is going to be a policy contrast election….For the first time in decades, we have the results of two different administrations to run against – President Trump’s four years and Kamala Harris’ four years. Two very different administrations – very different outcomes. That contrast, we think will be very helpful for us in the key Senate races.’

Democrats control the Senate by a razor-thin 51-49 margin, and Republicans are looking at a favorable election map this year with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.

One of those seats is in West Virginia, a deep red state that Trump carried by nearly 40 points in 2020. With moderate Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, not seeking re-election, flipping the seat is nearly a sure thing for the GOP.

Additionally, in Daines’ home state of Montana and in Ohio, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago, Republicans are aiming to defeat Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown.

Five more Democratic-held seats are up for grabs this year in crucial presidential-election battleground states.

With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan of blue-state Maryland’s late entry into the Senate race in February gave them an unexpected headache in a state previously considered safe territory. Hogan left the governor’s office at the beginning of 2023 with very positive approval and favorable ratings.

Daines, for the first time, definitely said his party would recapture the majority.

‘We will win the Senate majority’ Daines told Fox News.

‘Fifty-one is the number that we want to get to. Clearly, there’s an opportunity to get beyond that, but 51 is the number we’ve got to get to,’ he stressed.

Vice President Kamala Harris raked in a staggering $361 million in fundraising in August, her campaign announced on Friday morning, in what it touted was ‘the largest haul of the 2024 cycle.’

The fundraising by the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee was nearly triple the $130 million that the Donald Trump campaign announced on Wednesday that the former president brought in last month.

Harris has enjoyed a fundraising surge in the nearly seven weeks since she replaced President Biden at the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket.

The vice president’s campaign highlighted that Harris has brought in over $615 million in fundraising since July 21, when Biden, in a blockbuster announcement, ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his running mate.

The Harris campaign also touted August’s haul was ‘the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.’

The vice president’s team also showcased what it called ‘a massive war chest,’ reporting $404 million cash-on-hand as of the end of last month. That’s over $100 million more than the $295 million the Trump campaign said it had in its coffers.

Harris’ August haul was up from the $310 million the Democratic ticket brought in during July, while Trump’s fundraising last month was slightly down from the $138.7 it raised in July.

‘In just a short time, Vice President Harris’ candidacy has galvanized a history-making, broad, and diverse coalition – with the type of enthusiasm, energy, and grit that wins close elections,’ Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.’As we enter the final stretch of this election, we’re making sure every hard-earned dollar goes to winning over the voters who will decide this election.’

The former president’s team on Wednesday, in a statement revealing its fundraising figures, said that it’s cash-on-hand ensured that it had ‘the resources needed to propel President Trump’s campaign to victory.’

The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee enjoyed a fundraising lead over Trump and the Republican National Committee earlier this year. But Trump and the RNC topped Biden and the DNC by $331 million to $264 million during the April-June second quarter of 2024 fundraising.

Biden enjoyed a brief fundraising surge after his disastrous performance in his late June debate with Trump, as donors briefly shelled out big bucks in a sign of support for the 81-year-old president.

But Biden’s halting and shaky debate delivery also instantly fueled questions about his physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the White House – and spurred a rising chorus of calls from within his own party for the president to end his bid for a second term. The brief surge in fundraising didn’t last and, by early July, began to significantly slow down. 

Fundraising, along with polling, is a key metric in campaign politics and a measure of a candidate’s popularity and their campaign’s strength. The money raised can be used – among other things – to hire staff, expand grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote efforts, pay to produce and run ads on TV, radio, digital and mailers, and for candidate travel.

Some House Republicans are already privately worrying about how a partial government shutdown would affect their electoral chances in November.

‘If we shut down, we lose,’ one lawmaker told Fox News Digital.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled his plan to avoid a partial shutdown in a private call with House GOP lawmakers on Wednesday morning, four sources told Fox News Digital.

It involves a six-month extension of fiscal 2024’s federal funding levels known as a ‘continuing resolution’ (CR) – to buy House and Senate negotiators more time to hash out next year’s spending priorities – and would be linked to a bill adding a proof of citizenship requirement to the voter registration process.

But with both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the White House publicly opposing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, it’s highly likely Johnson’s plan would be dead on arrival if it passed the House.

‘My problem isn’t with the policy, which I support. My problem isn’t with the messaging, which I think is strong. My problem is that I just don’t think Chuck Schumer is going to agree to it,’ a second House Republican said of their concerns about the plan.

If the Senate and House don’t agree on a way forward by Oct. 1, the country could be wracked by a partial government shutdown roughly a month before Election Day.

Past government shutdowns like those seen under the Obama and Trump administrations in 2013 and 2019, respectively, have traditionally seen Americans blame the GOP. 

‘In general, the voters seem to have a strong bias for blaming Republicans for shutdowns, which is understandable,’ the second Republican continued.

‘We often have the more combative rhetoric leading up to a shutdown. We often are the ones who are most quick to claim that a shutdown isn’t a real problem. And so I think we kind of telegraph to voters that we’re OK with that. I think that makes it a little easier for the Democrats to try to stick us with [it].’

They added at the end of their explanation, ‘But it takes two to tango, and I don’t think what we’re asking for is too much.’

Meanwhile, two sources familiar with the Tuesday House GOP call said questions were raised about what Johnson’s next step would be if the Senate sent back a ‘clean’ CR with no attachments, and concerns were aired about how a possible shutdown would affect vulnerable Republicans.

‘The Republicans have the majority today because we won seats in California and [other blue states]. Those seem to be members who’d be most disadvantaged by a shutdown in the four weeks before an election,’ the second GOP lawmaker said.

Veteran GOP strategist Doug Heye said a possible shutdown could have less of an impact given it’s a presidential election year, but he conceded ‘that’s a real risk to take.’

‘Republicans usually get blamed for shutdowns, and that could play into Harris’ ‘Trump-as-chaos’ argument,’ Heye said.

He added, however, ‘that’s not a bet I’d make. Especially when the speaker has offered a path to avoid this.’

Other Republicans dismissed fears of political blowback in the event of a government shutdown.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who is not committed or opposed to Johnson’s plan, told Fox News Digital this week, ‘The legacy media makes these shutdowns worse than they are. … Nobody loses their house, nobody loses a dime. They all get made whole.’

A partial government shutdown would see some non-emergency federal services halted and potentially thousands of government employees furloughed.

Any federal payments paused during a shutdown are retroactively made to their recipients, however. 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, one of the architects of the SAVE Act, would not say whether he’d want a shutdown if the Johnson plan failed to pass.

‘I’m not going to play the shutdown game … the press wants to make it about a shutdown. Democrats want to make this about a shutdown,’ Roy said. ‘We’re offering to fund the government – all manners of sin, by the way, in that government…we’re willing to do that, but these guys need to make sure our elections are secure.’

‘If [Democrats] want to shut the government down, that’s on them.’

Congressional Republicans are claiming vindication after Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine federal tax-related charges on Thursday — and warning President Biden not to pardon his son.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital that he believes the plea ‘absolutely’ affirms the accusations and findings GOP lawmakers have levied against the first family since before President Biden took office.

‘It’s also vindication for the whistleblowers,’ he added, accusing Hunter’s defenders of trying to ‘wreck their careers.’

Davidson said of Biden potentially pardoning his son, ‘I think it would be an abuse of that power for the president to do that, but I think a lot of people will be surprised if Joe Biden doesn’t.’

The White House has said multiple times that the president will not pardon his son, but that has not stopped Republican-led skepticism from pouring in.

It comes after a bombshell House GOP report, which the White House has pushed back on, that accused the president of committing ‘impeachable offenses’ by allegedly helping enrich himself and his family through foreign deals.

Meanwhile, House Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., whose committee is one of three that was investigating Biden via impeachment inquiry, similarly said the guilty plea upheld the testimony of whistleblowers who came to his panel.

‘Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty once again affirms the integrity of the IRS whistleblowers who recommended these exact charges over two years ago before being stonewalled by the Biden-Harris Justice Department. Had Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley not come forward, putting their reputations and careers at great risk in the process, Hunter Biden would have received a sweetheart plea deal for merely two misdemeanors,’ Smith told Fox News Digital.

Smith added as a veiled warning, ‘It remains to be seen whether President Biden will abuse the power of his office to ensure his son avoids the consequences of his felony tax crimes.’

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who also co-led the probe, said, ‘Hunter Biden is finally admitting the obvious: he didn’t pay taxes on income he received by selling access to his father, Joe Biden.’

A member of that committee, Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘We also can’t let Hunter Biden’s plea deal distract from the fact that he was the bag man in the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme that saw them amass some $27 million by selling political access to ‘the big guy,’ Joe Biden.’

‘For more than a decade, Hunter and his associates enriched themselves at the expense of the American people. By all means, Hunter needs to be held to account, but this is by no means the end when it comes to equal justice under the law,’ Fallon said.

Biden and his allies have consistently pushed back on accusations levied by House Republicans, dismissing them as misrepresentations and political attacks.

But that has not convinced GOP lawmakers like Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who warned Biden not to pardon his son.

‘Hunter Biden’s bait-and-switch stunt is a clear effort to avoid a messy trial that would reveal his father’s role in the family’s corrupt business dealings. Americans will once again witness the Bidens’ corruption go unpunished as President Biden will likely pardon his son on his way out of the Oval Office,’ Biggs said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that ‘no,’ Hunter Biden would not get a presidential pardon from his father, hours before he entered his guilty plea.

Biden himself said in June that he would ‘abide by the jury’s decision’ when asked if he would pardon his son.