CNN is monitoring who is casting pre-election ballots in the 36 states that offer early voting, as well as how early voting numbers compare to four years ago, when pre-election voting reached historic levels during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This page, updated daily, is based on data from Catalist, election officials and Edison Research.

Four years ago, Democrats held a wide lead over Republicans in early voting, but the gap could be narrower this time as top Republican officials urge their supporters to vote before Election Day on Nov. 5.

Voters are registering by party in four of the seven presidential battleground states, and in each of those four, Democrats have cast a smaller share of pre-election ballots this year than at this point in 2020. Registration data by party is not available for Georgia’s battleground states , Michigan and Wisconsin.

The overall decline in interest in early voting so far should not be a surprise.

The 2020 election saw historic levels of pre-election voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some voters were hesitant to vote in person, with guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention recommending social distancing. Four years later, as the country emerges from the pandemic, more voters could return to the polls to vote in person before or on Election Day.

Another metric that is clear from the data so far is that older voters make up a larger share of voters in battleground states, compared to this point in 2020.

The data also shows early voting trends by racial and ethnic groups, offering clues about the composition of the electorate. In some battleground states, a larger share of white voters voted in favor of the election than at this point in 2020.