(CNN) Democrats continue to maintain their lead over Republicans in pre-Election Day ballots cast in the battleground states of North Carolina and Florida, but that gap is narrowing as in-person early voting ramps up. In North Carolina, the margin between Democrats and Republicans who have already cast their ballot has been cut in half since last Monday, according to the most recent party data from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations. The data shows Democrats led Republicans in ballots cast in the Tar Heel State by 32 percentage points (50%-18%) at the beginning of last week, but that margin has narrowed to just 16 points (43%-27%). This is not predictive of an ultimate outcome, as polls suggest Democrats across the country are more likely to vote prior to Election Day than Republicans. In-person early voting began in North Carolina on October 15 and, so far, there is a big difference between who is voting by mail and who is voting in person.

Source: CNN October 22, 2020 16:07 UTC