Lines were short and steady on the first morning, election officials said. Early in-person voting began on Monday in a dozen states, and preliminary counts suggest turnout is running close to the last midterm cycle, with modest increases in suburban counties and slight declines in rural ones. Election officials in several states reported that new voter-verification procedures added roughly a minute to the check-in process but caused no significant delays. Mail ballots, which were sent out two weeks earlier, are returning at a faster pace than in 2022, a change officials attribute to pre-paid return postage in six states.Early voting opens in twelve states with turnout tracking 2022 levels
