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Two weeks until Election Day, Democrats have a big lead in early voting

Results are closer in some battleground states, and state Republicans are banking on bigger turnout on Election Day.

Two weeks before Election Day, early votes have come in from almost every state, and Democrats have a clear edge in ballots that have already been cast, according to NBC News' early voting tracker.

More than 29 million people from 45 states had voted as of Tuesday morning, either by mail or in person. Nearly half of those votes — almost 14.2 million ballots — had come from Democratic-affiliated voters. Republican-affiliated voters had returned almost 10.1 million ballots. And while not every Democrat will vote for former Vice President Joe Biden and not every Republican will vote for President Donald Trump, Democrats have a 14-point edge in returned ballots for which party affiliation is known.

The early voting data are provided by the political data firm TargetSmart. Nationwide numbers on party affiliation are based on a combination of state-provided registration data, when available, and TargetSmart's model of party affiliation.

More than 1 million ballots have already been cast in nine states. They include several battleground states, like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio.

Democrats have returned more ballots in 32 states. In Florida and Minnesota, Democratic early votes are outpacing those of Republicans by more than 20 percentage points. In New Hampshire, Democratic early voters are ahead by 36 points. But the parties are neck and neck in Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The vote totals, which are up by more than 350 percent from this time in 2016, have caught the attention of party officials in many states, with state Democratic parties saying the results are a return on an investment.

"The Texas Democratic Party has put a lot of investment into ensuring that Texas turns blue, and we're seeing this investment play out in real time," said Abhi Rahman, communications director for the Texas Democratic Party. "This is a good start, but we have to continue to do the work. We're not taking anything for granted."

Texas Republicans see it differently, according to the state party's communication director, Luke Twombly, who said, "We expect to see our share of the turnout percentage climb with each passing day."

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Tony Zammit, communications director for Michigan's Republican Party, said the party has an advantage over state Democrats because of door-knocking in large numbers.

"We have a comprehensive strategy on getting out votes, focusing on absentee ballots, but more on Election Day," he said.

Zammit also said he expects Republican voters to show up come Nov. 3.

"We feel pretty confident that when votes are counted that the Republican Party will be victorious," he said.