Those who didn't vote in 2016 are showing up early in droves — and more are Democrats

With early voting totals smashing records on a daily basis, Democrats are leading with a key constituency — those who did not, or could not, vote in 2016.

So far, more than 20 percent of the early vote nationwide has come from these voters, according to data from the NBC News Decision Desk/TargetSmart, a Democratic political data firm.

With 77 million having already cast early votes — a number that the Decision Desk projects could hit 100 million by Tuesday's election — more than 17.5 million of them have come from people who passed on voting in 2016 or were not yet eligible to vote.

Among those 17.5 million voters, Democrats hold a nearly 2 million vote advantage over Republicans, with roughly 7.5 million votes coming from registered Democrats and 5.5 million from registered Republicans, according to the Decision Desk/TargetSmart. An additional 4.46 million came from independents who did not vote in 2016.