This year's early voting is significantly outpacing the last midterm elections, according to an Associated Press analysis of voting data five days before Election Day.

• More than 43 million Americans have voted early in person or returned mail-in ballots — nearly 10 million more than in 2022.
• The figures cover 47 states and D.C., compared with 48 states and D.C. four years ago.

🏛️ There have been particularly sharp increases in states hosting big competitive races.

• In Texas, where voters are deciding closely watched Senate, House and governor's races, more than 6.3 million people voted early as of Wednesday.
• That's compared with 4.2 million at the same point four years ago, a 50% increase.

🗳️ Early voting has also increased more than 30% from the same point four years ago in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas.

• In South Carolina, where voters are choosing a successor to the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, early voting is up 83%.

Between the lines: In states that provide party affiliation data, about 6.8 million Democrats and 5.2 million Republicans have voted early.

• Those figures don't account for all early voters nationwide, or indicate which candidates received their votes.

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Pope Leo XIV has voted in the Illinois midterm elections using a mail-in ballot, Axios' Josephine Walker reports.

• That makes him the first sitting pope to vote in a U.S. election.

⛪️ The Holy See Press Office said in a statement that Leo "has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so" and that "in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago."

• The statement added that Leo believes "in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes."

🫏🐘 Leo has voted in both Democratic and Republican primaries over the last two decades.

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1. ⚾️ Tens of thousands of giddy Brewers fans flooded downtown Milwaukee for today's victory parade. Others watched from parking garages and cheered from office windows. Players on buses chugged Miller Lite and walked the parade route, high-fiving fans. Live coverage.
2. 🏥 Christa Pike, in her first public statement since surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month, said she's in constant pain, but thankful for the love and support she has received. Go deeper.
3. 🖖 This week's deaths of Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) and Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) have rocked the Star Trek community. William Shatner (James T. Kirk) called it a "heartbreaking week." Read more.

A few small tweaks can ease this weekend's "fall back" to standard time, Renske Lok, a circadian biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, tells Axios Denver's Alayna Alvarez.

Here's how to hack it:

• 🛌 Start tonight. Shift your bedtime and wake-up time back by 10–12 minutes a day to give your internal clock a head start.
• 👶 Parents, beware. Babies and kids don't understand the shift to standard time, so a 6 a.m. wake-up call could become 5 a.m.
• 💤 Don't count on bonus sleep. Data from Oura users shows that they slept less overall the week after the 2024 fall time change, despite gaining an hour.
• ☀️ Chase the morning sun. Getting outside early helps your body adjust.

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