All the Ways This Election Day Will Be Different: QuickTake Q&A

A presidential campaign that’s included 3 a.m. tweet storms, the secret to good risotto and a cameo by the one Bush not in politics is shaping up, fittingly enough, as one that will shatter Election Day norms. More Americans than ever before will wake up on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in November having already cast their vote for president. Donald Trump will test his revolutionary contention that a savvy social-media operation can outdo traditional, targeted, labor-intensive get-out-the-vote efforts. A third-party candidate, Evan McMullin, could plausibly win a state (Utah), which hasn’t happened since 1968. Oh, and the identity of the next president might be widely announced while some Americans are still in line to vote.

The number of Americans casting early, absentee or mail-in ballots could top 50 million this year, up from 46 million in 2012, the Pew Research Center estimates. That means about 40 percent of votes could already be in before Nov. 8. Thirty-seven states, plus the District of Columbia, now permit all properly registered voters to cast their ballots early, no questions asked. In the hands of election prognosticators, early-voting patterns have become tea leaves that help predict the outcome of the election, weeks in advance.