With two days left before Tuesday’s general election, roughly 98,000 District voters had already returned ballots, and the pace more than doubled in the final week of October. Turnout so far still runs well behind the last general election, and the early ballots are unevenly spread across the city’s eight wards.
A Washington Inquisitor analysis of the D.C. Board of Elections’ daily ballot reports through Saturday, Oct. 31, found 98,449 ballots in hand. That includes 41,711 deposited in the city’s drop boxes, 35,165 returned through the U.S. Postal Service and 21,573 cast in person at early vote centers. That is 21.7% of the 453,471 voters on the rolls as of Sept. 30, according to the board’s monthly registration report.
The figures are preliminary counts of ballots received, not votes counted, and the board updates them daily. Ballots still in the mail, ballots cast at early vote centers on Sunday, Nov. 1, and every ballot cast on Election Day are not included.
How D.C. votes this year
The District mails a ballot to every registered voter. According to the board’s 2026 general election calendar, drop boxes opened Oct. 9 and close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, and early vote centers are open Oct. 26 through Nov. 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Election Day, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., voters can register at the polls, and anyone in line at 8 p.m. may vote. Hearings on special ballots are scheduled for Nov. 12 and 13.
The top of the ballot includes an open race for mayor, with Janeese Lewis George (D), Rhonda Hamilton (I) and Robert L. Gross (Statehood Green) on the board’s certified candidate list. Voters are also choosing a delegate to Congress (Robert White (D), Denise Rosado (R) and Kymone Freeman (Statehood Green)), the Council chairman (Phil Mendelson (D) and Abi-Ananiah Prudent (R)), the attorney general (Brian Schwalb (D) and Manuel Rivera (R)), an at-large Council seat (Oye Owolewa (D), Darryl Moch (Statehood Green), Darrell Green (R) and Elissa Silverman (I)), Council members in Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6, shadow representatives, State Board of Education members and advisory neighborhood commissioners.
The surge in the final week
For most of October, drop-box returns ran between about 900 and 1,600 ballots a day after a first-day spike of 4,692 on Oct. 13. That changed when in-person early voting opened on Oct. 26. Drop-box deposits climbed every day but one through the end of the month, reaching 4,587 on Saturday, the most since opening day. At the same time, early vote centers took in between 2,898 and 4,509 ballots a day.
| Date | Drop boxes | Early vote centers | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 25 (Sun.) | 1,621 | n/a | 1,621 |
| Oct. 26 (Mon.) | 2,578 | 3,361 | 5,939 |
| Oct. 27 (Tue.) | 3,104 | 3,165 | 6,269 |
| Oct. 28 (Wed.) | 3,505 | 2,898 | 6,403 |
| Oct. 29 (Thu.) | 3,351 | 3,477 | 6,828 |
| Oct. 30 (Fri.) | 4,126 | 4,509 | 8,635 |
| Oct. 31 (Sat.) | 4,587 | 4,163 | 8,750 |
Mail returns are reported only as a citywide total by day. The largest single days for Postal Service returns were Oct. 13 (6,557), Oct. 17 (3,549), Oct. 25 (3,447) and Oct. 27 (3,100), according to the board.
Where early ballots are coming from
The board reports drop-box and early vote center ballots by the ward where the box or center is located. That is not the same as the voter’s home ward, since any District voter may use any drop box or vote center. Still, the pattern is consistent across both methods: the busiest sites are in Northwest and in Wards 5 and 6, while Ward 8 trails.
| Ward | Drop boxes | Early vote centers | Combined | Registered voters | Combined as % of registered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 5,777 | 2,022 | 7,799 | 54,691 | 14.3% |
| Ward 2 | 6,065 | 3,539 | 9,604 | 49,375 | 19.5% |
| Ward 3 | 7,723 | 2,766 | 10,489 | 54,746 | 19.2% |
| Ward 4 | 4,828 | 2,810 | 7,638 | 59,594 | 12.8% |
| Ward 5 | 5,334 | 2,940 | 8,274 | 65,825 | 12.6% |
| Ward 6 | 6,886 | 2,672 | 9,558 | 64,292 | 14.9% |
| Ward 7 | 3,221 | 3,128 | 6,349 | 57,322 | 11.1% |
| Ward 8 | 1,877 | 1,696 | 3,573 | 47,626 | 7.5% |
| Citywide | 41,711 | 21,573 | 63,284 | 453,471 | 14.0% |
Ward 3 led the city in drop-box deposits, with 7,723, or 18.5% of all drop-box ballots. Ward 8, with 47,626 registered voters, accounted for 1,877 drop-box ballots, or 4.5% of the total. Measured against registration, drop-box and early-vote ballots at sites in Wards 2 and 3 equaled about 19% of each ward’s registered voters, more than two and a half times the 7.5% in Ward 8.
Ward 7’s early-vote total of 3,128 includes 451 ballots cast at the District’s two jails, which sit in the ward. Without those, Ward 7’s centers recorded 2,677 ballots. Ward 2’s figure is boosted by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown, which draws voters from across the city.
The busiest early vote centers
The board operated 25 neighborhood early vote centers, plus voting at the Central Detention Facility and the Correctional Treatment Facility. The Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in Brookland, in Ward 5, was the busiest by a wide margin.
| Center | Ward | Ballots |
|---|---|---|
| Turkey Thicket Recreation Center | 5 | 2,203 |
| M.L.K. Jr. Memorial Library | 2 | 1,408 |
| Takoma Community Center | 4 | 1,251 |
| Sherwood Recreation Center | 6 | 1,247 |
| Columbia Heights Community Center | 1 | 1,198 |
| Chevy Chase Community Center | 3 | 1,099 |
| Cleveland Park Library | 3 | 1,018 |
| Stead Recreation Center | 2 | 1,012 |
At the other end, the Bald Eagle Recreation Center in Ward 8 recorded 327 ballots over six days, and the Ferebee-Hope Recreation Center, also in Ward 8, recorded 386. Ward 8’s four centers together took 1,696 ballots, fewer than Turkey Thicket alone.
Voting from the jails
D.C. is one of the few places in the country where people incarcerated for felony convictions keep the right to vote. The board’s guidance for incarcerated voters and the Department of Corrections say eligible residents held at the Central Detention Facility or the Correctional Treatment Facility may vote. This year, residents of the two facilities could vote in person on site during early voting, and the board’s reports show 261 ballots cast at the Central Detention Facility and 190 at the Correctional Treatment Facility.
Behind the 2024 pace
Comparisons with 2024 come with a caveat: that was a presidential election, which typically drives higher turnout than a midterm year. The board’s daily 2024 reports, as compiled by an independent early-vote tracker, show that by the equivalent point in 2024, three days before Election Day, the District had received 64,052 drop-box ballots, 68,435 mail ballots and 60,855 early in-person ballots, a total of 193,342, or about 43.6% of the 443,043 voters registered then.
The 2026 total through the same point, 98,449, is about 51% of that 2024 figure.
| Method | 2026 (through Oct. 31) | 2024 (through Nov. 2) | 2024 final before Election Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drop boxes | 41,711 | 64,052 | 96,610 |
| Mail (USPS) | 35,165 | 68,435 | 75,293 |
| Early vote centers | 21,573 | 60,855 | 72,914 |
| Total | 98,449 | 193,342 | 244,817 |
The ward pattern looks similar to 2024’s. In the final 2024 drop-box count, sites in Ward 6 led with 16,781 ballots (17.4% of the total) and Ward 8 had 5,255 (5.4%). This year, Ward 3 leads with 18.5% of drop-box ballots, Ward 6 has 16.5% and Ward 8 has 4.5%. Among early-vote ballots, Ward 8 sites accounted for 8.4% of the 2024 total and 7.9% so far this year.
The electorate
D.C.’s rolls remain overwhelmingly Democratic. Of the 453,471 registered voters as of Sept. 30, 346,060 (76.3%) were Democrats, 78,279 had no party affiliation, 22,482 were Republicans, 4,170 were Statehood Green and 2,480 belonged to other parties, according to the board’s registration report. Ward 5 had the most registered voters (65,825) and Ward 8 the fewest (47,626).
| Party | Voters | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 346,060 | 76.3% |
| No party | 78,279 | 17.3% |
| Republican | 22,482 | 5.0% |
| Statehood Green | 4,170 | 0.9% |
| Other | 2,480 | 0.5% |
| Total | 453,471 | 100% |
What to watch
Sunday is the last day of in-person early voting. Mailed ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 13 to count, according to the board’s election calendar. Drop boxes remain open until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Methodology
The Inquisitor downloaded the D.C. Board of Elections’ daily ballot reports for drop boxes, Postal Service returns and early vote centers on Nov. 1, 2026, covering ballots received through Oct. 31. Ward figures reflect the location of the drop box or vote center, not where the voter lives; mail ballots are not reported by ward. Ward shares of registration use the board’s Sept. 30, 2026 registration report. 2024 comparisons use the board’s 2024 daily reports as compiled by the independent tracker at early.professorbutts.com, matched to the same number of days before the election. All figures are preliminary and subject to change.
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