For Immediate Release
October 15, 2024
Contact: Press@TargetSmart.com
TargetSmart Launches 2024 Early Vote & Vote by Mail Dashboard
Industry-Leading Tool Provides Insight Into Early Voting and Absentee Trends Leading Up to Election Day
Washington, DC – Today, TargetSmart, the leading provider of political data for campaigns and advocacy organizations, unveiled the 2024 version of TargetEarly, an industry-leading tool that allows users to analyze the early vote in near real-time. TargetEarly provides critical insights into the composition of the electorate and broader voting trends.
“We are thrilled to announce the launch of this year’s TargetEarly, making information on early and absentee voting publicly available in what is shaping up to be another closely contested election year,” said Tom Bonier, TargetSmart Senior Advisor.
A few weeks ago, Bonier wrote a piece detailing how the 2024 early vote differs from other cycles, and how to interpret the data:
In the last few years alone, voting habits, state laws, party messaging, and even public opinion around early voting have shifted drastically… …2020 was our last comparable presidential election, and it happened in the middle of a global pandemic. Voting laws were adapted across the country, leading to an unprecedented two-thirds of votes being cast early or absentee. That makes 2020—and even 2016—less of a perfect benchmark for 2024 than we might be used to.
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As we head into the early voting period, we’re expecting to see some notable shifts: more Democratic-leaning voters—especially younger ones—may shift from voting early, like they did in 2020, to voting on Election Day this year. Meanwhile, we might see the opposite trend with some Republican voters (as we did in Virginia’s 2023 elections).
Read the full guide on how to interpret the data HERE.
TargetEarly will be an essential resource to contextualize the data and trends in this year’s electoral and voting patterns and will also allow campaigns and organizations to be nimble in tailoring their strategies, enhancing outreach efforts and resource allocation. This cycle, it is anticipated that tens of millions of Americans will vote early, and the TargetEarly dashboard will enable near real-time analysis across various dimensions, including:
- Geography: Insights by state, county, congressional district, state house, and media market.
- Demographics: Analysis of factors including age, race, gender, and education.
- Vote History: Understanding the behaviors of first-time voters, infrequent voters, and established voters.
In addition, TargetEarly will unveil a first of its kind feature this year, 2020 Vote Mode, which can be toggled on and off in the platform, allowing users to analyze the voting method used in 2020 for voters who have already cast their ballot in this year’s election.
Using TargetEarly, you can easily analyze massive amounts of data to see that:
- In Michigan, women are comprising an identical share of the vote cast compared to 2022, a year where abortion rights were literally on the ballot.
- In Pennsylvania, Democratic turnout in the 2024 election so far is 16.2% of total ballots cast before election day in 2020. In contrast, Republican turnout is 14.8% of what it was before election day in 2020.
- In North Carolina, while we only have about 47k people reporting as having voted to date, Democrats have a 13 point lead in the early vote and 17 point lead among those who have voted already and weren’t registered to vote in 2020.
TargetSmart will provide regular commentary and analysis on trends we’re seeing in the coming weeks. You can learn more about TargetEarly and explore 2024 early & absentee voting data HERE. In addition, TargetSmart will continue to update its first-of-its kind Voter Registration Dashboard which provides the most up-to-date voter registration data, trends, and insights at your fingertips.
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